News & Blogs
LeBron James is a 76er. What does it mean for the Knicks? – Posting & Toasting
Who will the Knicks face on Ring Night and Christmas? – Posting & Toasting
Does LeBron James to 76ers seriously threaten Knicks’ Eastern Conference supremacy? – SNY
Jordan Clarkson re-signing with Knicks on one-year deal – SNY
Why the 76ers have the Celtics and Knicks to thank for landing LeBron James – CBS Sports
Karl-Anthony Towns Knows the Knicks’ Win Was Bigger Than Basketball – The New York Times
76ers Are Knikcs Biggest Threat!? Lebron Joins 76ers – Knick of Time
Pod Strickland Patreon Preview Episode 613: Waiting for LeBron – The Strickland
LeBron in Philly Won’t Work! – Knicks Fan TV
YT News
48 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.07.26)”
I have to say that the KCP move changed my opinion on the Sixers. Not because of KCP, as i think he is washed and won’t be a factor, but because it reminded me that they might be the most attractive place to go for veteran ring chasers come the buyout season post trade deadline. The “let’s help Lebron win the last one” movement will be pretty compelling, i think.
But hey, i think this suits us better, our team works better as the underdog. Knicks and Brunson winning a championship dismissed championships as someone said, and now other teams will be the favorites… this will all keep the fire under our team burning, and if that makes them keep focused and not relax a single bit by being the champions, that’s (very) good news for us.
I don’t think we’re the underdog.
KCP went to philly bc he is a Klutch client & former teammate of LeBron.
LeBron probably went to philly bc he’s a Klutch client, too, tbh.
Imagine this second round of the East playoffs, btw…
Boston v Philadelphia
New York v Indiana
I always said OG was fairly paid. I often said I thought he was a bargain.
I never thought he would do what he did in the playoffs.
Wasn’t KAT the plus minus all star for the playoffs?
It’s truly challenging to fully appreciate OG’s magnificence in this glorious championship run. I don’t think the box score or advanced stats do him justice. You hear the phrase “He was a monster!” thrown around, but in OG’s case, it really applies.
The question now becomes: who is the real OG? The guy who broke the needle off the efficiency/consistency gauge for 17 playoff games, or the 2.0 BPM player he was during the regular season? Did he gain confidence in his overall game to the point where he makes a late-career leap to a consistent 5.0+ BPM player, i.e. a top-20 player in the NBA? Or did he just go on a ridiculously hot shooting streak? Do we really have a “Big 3” with three legit superstars in their respective primes?
It sure felt that way in the playoffs.
I have no regrets suggesting a 0.1 bpm wing earning 25% of the salary cap was overpaid.
He was overpaid… until he wasn’t.
It’s the same thing with all three of these guys: OG, Brunson, KAT. It was suggested that Leon overpaid for all of them (or in KAT’s case acquired someone overpaid), but he knew their worth better anyone. He paid over market because he knew more than the market.
I was skeptical about 2 of the 3 when the evidence wasn’t present. Now that it’s present & undeniable I happily eat crow for breakfast every day.
But let’s be real: OG took a big leap forward this year. This was not the same player I doubted was worth 25%.
I don’t think it matters what OG is anymore. We won it all thanks to him. I don’t need to argue about it. And if he is never as good again I won’t particularly care.
That said, OG seems like the kind of a guy who has set a goal to be a complete two-way star, like he was in the playoffs. And I would bet n him being that the rest of his contract, in his own inimitable way.
Can’t really agree Hubert. Most of us were good with the contract we gave him and trade for him because of what he could do.
Skeptical on KAT, sure, but most of knew importance of OG
“I have to say that the KCP move changed my opinion on the Sixers. Not because of KCP, as i think he is washed and won’t be a factor, but because it reminded me that they might be the most attractive place to go for veteran ring chasers come the buyout season post trade deadline. The “let’s help Lebron win the last one” movement will be pretty compelling, i think.”
I’m fuly expecting that we will not coast through three shitty teams in the 2027 playoffs like we did in 2026. The nice thing is that it is no longer a “we better win or it will be 54 years without a championship and one less year remaining of this core.” I will never be as stressed as I have been during playoff runs prior to the final buzzer in Game 5 in SA.
Case in point: In 2025, I was absolutely dreading playing the Celts in round 2. And even this year, while they finished higher than us in the standings but I kinda knew they were frauds, the thought of losing to them in Round 2 was excruciating.
Now that we have what we have longed for all these years, I am actually looking forward to a tough, grueling, hard-fought 6-7 game series that comes down to the wire against any/all of Boston, Philly, Detriot, Miami, and especially Indiana. Bring those fuckers on!
Hubs, I don’t think we’re underdogs either but I’m ok with dumb espn “analysts” and social media hot talkers declaring the 76ers favorites to come out of the east.
I think the disrespect will fuel our guys. And I think similar to last season Brown will spend the regular season tinkering with the line ups and minutes and giving guys like Kolek and Diawara lots of minutes. We’ll be a low 50s win team again and won’t have the 1st seed in the east and lots of people will be declaring that our run was a fluke.
Then the playoffs will come and we’ll go curb stomping again.
I lost the argument, Jolly Roger. You guys were right. I think my position was justified but I was wrong.
It’s the same with Mikal Bridges. Everyone who thought we gave up too many picks had a good leg to stand on. But now we’re all wrong, and Strat gets to remind us about it bc he was always cool with the price.
I don’t think anyone thinks we will “coast” through the East, as so many of its top teams have improved this offseason (Boston’s wonderboy literally copying us by becoming more efficient and emphasizing rebounding is really quite a feather in Leon’s cap btw.)
But I still like our starting 5 more than anyone else’s, and we will continue to have “continuity” in our favor. We have some nice bench pieces already… we just need another move or two as icing on the cake.
I don’t think the OG and Mikal trades/extensions are analagous at all.
You can still make the argument that the price paid for Mikal was way over the top because a) there were many analogs for Mikal that may have been available for a much cheaper price, b) he was expected to be better than he was (on offense, more like the BKN post-trade version, on defense, a POA stopper) and a more consistent player than he turned out to be. Folks were ready to bail on him after game 3 in ATL. c) he was older than OG when acquired so no one was expecting further development.
In OG’s case, he was still only 26, was languishing behind other wings, was often injured but with recoverable rather than chronic stuff, so the cost and the contract had an expectation for further development priced in. I don’t know if anyone thought the Toronto version of OG was worth that contract. And from the minute he was acquired, he demonstrated that he was worth every penny, aside from lingering injury concerns (the elbow, the hammy). It was also the case that after the OG trade we still had all of our firsts and the lightly protected Milwaukee pick.
Ultimately it worked out, and Mikal was definitely a significant part of the success, and I still believe that we could have gotten a better player than Mikal with all of those picks. But since we won, hey, fuck them picks!
When I look back at B-R’s Warriors pages from their first 2 championship runs, I still can’t believe how good that team was. Beyond Steph, Klay, Draymond, and Iggy, they really didn’t seem all that good or deep on paper.
It was more than 3 weeks ago when LeBron gave notice to the Lakers that he’d be taking his talents elsewhere. The speculation over his next destination has been THE biggest story in the NBA since then.
The man may have lost a step or three on the court but he may be even more media savvy than ever. Nearly a month’s worth of unrelenting hype has helped the LeBron as Savior narrative retain much of its former potency. So much so that many appear to have largely overlooked the fact that he will soon be 42 years old. Forty two.
Granted, he’s not Vince Carter, Robert Parish or any of the dozen or so other 42 year olds who once wheezed and creaked through the end of their NBA careers. LeBron still has game. He is, without question, the Greatest Old Guy Ever in league history. But that’s a far cry from the man of ten years ago who could single-handedly change a team’s fortunes just by walking through the door. And yet, that’s pretty much how his arrival in Philly at the age of 42 is now being described.
While many may reflexively accept the LeBron as Savior hype, I’m still not buying it. But what I happen to believe is neither here nor there. The pertinent question is the extent to which LeBron himself believes it. Or his teammates, for that matter. How much of a leadership role does he expect to have? What level of buy-in would he get from his teammates should he try to assume that role? And, how willing would he be to embrace a secondary role were it to become increasingly obvious on the court that, yes, he’s really 42 years old?
Of course all anyone can do now is guess at the answers to those questions. It will be fascinating to watch it all play out. My suspicion is that it all goes spectacularly off the rails and, if it does, I will be here for it.
That’s the spirit! 💪
A great deal depends on KAT learning to stay out of foul trouble. Without Mitch as insurance we can lose to anyone in the East now if he can’t stay on the court.
I think we also have to understand we drew a lot of small teams. Atlanta was the shortest team in the playoffs. Philly & San Antonio started Oubre & Champagnie at the 4. Cleveland is physically tall but Mobley & Allen shrink in the playoffs. This played perfectly into our hands.
People like to point out Mitch only played 13 mpg in the playoffs, but our draw was a big reason why. The year before when we drew the big teams he played 20 mpg.
We could easily draw teams like Orlando, Boston, and OKC that start 7 footers at the 4. Then the shortness that wasn’t a problem last spring could be an Achilles heel.
What is really being lost in the LeBron hype is that the BIG acquisition for Philly is Jaylen Brown, who was 6th in MVP voting and is coming off of a season where he led a shitty team to 56 wins.
LeBron’s #1 task is to make Maxey, Edgecombe, and especially Brown better than the really good players they already are. That should take a lot of pressure off of him and Embiid.
I dunno man… we’re still running the dearth lineup out there every game and we’re not gonna be spending a lot of time dealing with hormone shifts. I think we’re gonna slice the east up.
It really is interesting how everyone (us, non-Knick fans and NBA writers) assess the huge leap OG, Mikal, and KAT made mid-round one to win it all. X thousands of minutes for all 3 shows one thing, these play-offs show another. Go with the much richer data. But I think that underestimates what the chemistry of peaking in the playoffs is all about (see Ben. Joel, and Doc as exhibit 1).
Despite being a natural born optimist i can’t bet my house that the knicks are going to the Finals again easily.
The team showed an incredibly tough mentality after the 3rd game of the playoffs but the Nba title ain’t exactly a walk in the park and we’re not as hungry as we were anymore..
I get the knicks fans’ hyperconfidence and i don’t blame them for that but it’s gonna take me a few months before i feel that this team is capable to repeat.
Peaking in the playoffs is crucial but we also had Good Health, Some needed Luck in vital moments, Non Einstein opponent Coaches to make things harder for us.
Nba’s all about adjustments.
Expect every team to adjust to us and ain’t so sure we’ll be able to shock everyone again as we just did.
There is no doubt that we have taken a step back by losing Mitch. Andre Drummond can sort of mimic the rebounding on both ends and might be a better screen-setter than Mitch, but the dropoff on defense is massive.
I’ve been doing a deep dive into Nick Richards and coming away each time with a feeling of dread. His highlights look good enough, but everything else, the stats, the articles, etc., suggests that he’s as bad on D as Drummond, if not worse.
The caveats are of the squinting variety. His best year was in 2022-23. He largely came off the bench and it was the only year that he had a positive on/off. His per 36 numbers were solid for a second C: 15.7 pts on a .676 TS%, 12.3 TRB, 4.3 ORB, 2.1 BLK, 1.7 TOV, 4.6 fouls. Then after that he became a starter and his usage creeped up and it all went downhill. So the question becomes: can he be shoehorned into a role that accentuates his strengths and minimizes his weaknesses?
From what I read, his awareness as a team defender is very poor. I don’t see that changing much, even with better players around him. Seems like the ship on any upside has sailed.
Someone better has to come along, right?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/magazine/karl-anthony-towns-interview.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Great KAT interview. This part is especially notable:
You can’t be the best team ever without a lot of good players.
Actually, I was wrong. The best part of the interview is when Marchese politely gives KAT shit about the foul trouble and KAT pushes back.
I loved how KAT threw love at Thibs. That was nice to see.
Not so nice to see him totally disregard his defensive tendencies. I guess that’s why he doesn’t stop fouling.
Also, this made me laugh:
I’ll just have to start laughing at Mitch when we see each other. He owes me a pickup truck.
For what? I don’t know, I just want a pickup truck.
Also love a fat ass.
Shit sorry. Wrong thread.
I was gonna remind Clarence that Yabu was traded…
Great interview. KAT is legit a good guy. Leon’s next biggest challenge will be resigning him to an OG type contract. If he gets Melo contract with only a few dollars under max, the team is cooked. Trading him is a huge step back too.
Just for the record, I also thought we overpaid.
I just thought he was the final piece to the starting lineup so it was OK to overpay. At that point, I felt like the only thing we needed was a real backup PG to be considered a serious contender. And of course I loved the Alvarado signing this year.
Now everyone knows we need a backup C. It’s not going to be easy to replace Mitch qualitatively, but if we get someone that protects the rim well, is “more reliable” and that fits either at the C or next to Towns on occasion we’ll be OK. I’m just worried about what we’ll have to give up because it feels like it might be Deuce because of his extention and because we also have Shamet. I love Deuce.
One of the things I threw out there a few times about OG when we signed him was that he was still young enough to take a step forward. I’d be a liar to say I expected it. It was one of those wildcard hopes you have as a fan that has enough of a possibility of happening to make it a legit hope. His playoff run was unreal. I don’t think he can sustain that, but I think he’s better now than when we signed him and he was already damn good. His AIO metrics weren’t fully capturing his defense or ability to guard multiple positions. It’s not like his elite defense is only good against SFs and of less value when that player is not that good anyway. We can put him on the best player almost every night and get the full value of his defense, switching ability and help constantly.
10/10 headline. No notes.
Maybe I’m just jealous, but how is David Marchese getting all these primo interviews all of a sudden? I get it’s the Times, but a goddamn Canadian?!
Just walked into Chrissy’s pizza. This mortal coil playing and big night on the vhs. Summer rules.
Option one: sign Sochan and lean into playing some small ball with him at the 5. The upside of this is he is a good defensive player and already knows the players and is a switchable guy who is still very young and has upside. Downside he is not a true center
Option two: sign someone like Nic Richard’s. Upside he’s a true 5. Downside he seems pretty meh.
Which do you prefer?
I do think we should sign someone before the season starts to nominally be that third string center.
Yabu shows you can probably trade anyone who’s on a cheapish contract if you’re willing to attach a second rounder or two, which we should be open to doing.
I’d like to sign someone, though, because ideally that person turns out to be ok and we then don’t have to trade deuce.
Based on this management team’s prior MO, it’s very possible that training camp will partially be a competition for the last one or two roster spots
GF and I watched most of the KAT interview today. We saw that it was 40 minutes, so we watched probably the first 25 or so and then moved on. Sorry we missed the Mitch/pickup truck reference. She would have really liked that.
I was having trouble answering swifty’s question re: Sochan or Nick Richards. I was able to think of enough reasons to go either way—mostly I was going towards Jeremy because of the defense, because I really believe that we need a defensive backup center now that we have Drum in tow. And then I was going towards Richards because he is a true center/taller, etc.
So did the famous bbref comp page for them. It surprises me to say this, but it definitely swayed me in the direction of Richards (if we can only sign one; are we sure we can’t get both???). Per 36 over career:
Points: Richards 14.5; Sochan 14.8
Blocks: Richards 1.7; Sochan 0.6
Rebounds: Richards 11.8; Sochan 8.1
Offensive Rebounds: Richards 3.9; Sochan 2.6
FG%: Richards .621; Sochan .470
I’m not trying to cherrypick here. I was trying to look at “center-y stats.”
Richards is one of those guys who, like OG, does intangible things that don’t show up in the box score. Unlike OG, all of the intangible things Richards does are negative.
I think we might regret losing Sergio de Larrea to Dolan’s edict as much as Mitch. We’d all be drooling if this kid had been on our summer league roster.
And it just occurred to me… we traded him to Dallas… and didn’t get Moussa Cisse back.
FWIW I came across all the De Larrea hype while looking up Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu, a Mavs center that the Knicks have been linked to. Seems like a spectacular athlete but the fact that he’s 26 and hasn’t caught on anywhere makes me assume there’s huge holes in his game somewhere.
When I am reminded of the surplus of Summer League centers that are out there (like KAE), it makes me feel better that we’ll sign someone young/tall/defensive-minded (not the same as *good at defense* yet, although obviously that would be better) to have on the roster in training camp. I wish we’d grabbed Jamarious Sharp, but again………there are plenty of others in that mold/archetype, too. In Leon I (still continue to [mostly]) trust.
Denver matched OKC’s offer sheet for Spencer Jones. They are over the 2nd apron and only have 11 players signed, not including RFA Peyton Watson. That roster is a problem.
I see the opposite, Doogie. Center’s the most scarce position in the league, and it’s reflected in rising costs. 2 years ago Hartenstein’s contract was seen as a massive overpay, now his extension at the same rate is good value. A guy like Precious got a one year deal at the vet min last year. Now he’s got a two year $12M deal. He didn’t get better. And look at what Walker Kessler cost.
Sochan is also a lot younger than Richards. He turned 23 two months ago while Richard’s is almost 29. I can see both of them coming to pre-season and battling if out.
“As long as everyone admits all 29 other NBA governors would have done the same thing in Dolan’s position then we’re good”
Funny how the guy who whines more than anyone else about false equivalencies and goalpost moves has no issue with trafficking in those things himself.
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