News & Blogs
Saturday Posted & Toasted Notes: Looming extensions, LeStory keeps growing – Posting & Toasting
Recently waived Jonas Valanciunas among centers on Knicks’ radar – SNY
Who will the Knicks face on Ring Night and Christmas? – Posting & Toasting
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
Knicks vs. 76ers? Spurs vs. Thunder? Predicting the NBA’s Opening Night and Christmas schedules – CBS Sports
Categories
57 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.07.27)”
The Athletic now has an article about the same question we discussed yesterday, who should play in the league’s marquee games？
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7468828/2026/07/24/nba-schedule-christmas-lebron-james-opening-night/
But for some reason, they don’t think Boston Philly is a compelling matchup and don’t mention this possibility.
I guess The Athletic has decided that LeBron’s presence on the roster trumps Brown’s, so the matchups should be geared for maximum LeDrama. Then again, the Celtics were one of his biggest rivals during his first stint in Cleveland.
But the apparent downplaying of Brown speaks to what’s going to be one of the more fascinating question for these Sixers: if you believe that the Celtics traded Brown because he didn’t want to be subordinate to Tatum anymore, how in the world is he going to react to being on a team where he will often be the third or even fourth option? And/or, how much will the talents of Maxey and his other teammates be wasted if Nurse decides he has to appease Brown by giving him the highest usage?
One major positive for the Knicks is that the spotlight has shifted. Obviously, as defending champs, they will have a target on their backs all season. But the drama of this Philly team is going to be story #1.
I agree, Z-man. We’ll obviously have a target on our backs but maybe a little less so with Lebron now in Philly.
It will be fascinating to see how that plays out. I could easily see it turning into a Lakers with Dwight Howard and Nash type situation. Embiid’s health is still the biggest ceiling on that team. What I found interesting in our series with them was that they played better to some degree without Embiid but him being in and out of the lineups and playing/not playing made it hard for them to find continuity and he has games where he plays but is not effective because he may not be hurt but he’s never 100 percent either.
I think we should just sign Sochan. He can play small ball 5. He’s a plus defender (we need them) and he’s versatile.
Then we can hopefully build up the trade value of Sochan, Kolek, Dadiet, etc…early in the season and use one or several of them instead of Deuce if we have to go grab another back up center (which I think we will definitely need to do).
“…if you believe that the Celtics traded Brown because he didn’t want to be subordinate to Tatum anymore”
I, for one, don’t believe that’s why the Celtics traded Brown. It was much more about his salary relative to his production, his upcoming extension. and his mouthing off after feeling very disrespected by being trade bait for Giannis after he just proved that he could carry a shitty supporting cast on his back to a 56-win season.
“…how in the world is he going to react to being on a team where he will often be the third or even fourth option? And/or, how much will the talents of Maxey and his other teammates be wasted if Nurse decides he has to appease Brown by giving him the highest usage?”
It’s possible that this will become an issue, but my personal opinion is that the narrative that Brown is a selfish primadonna is overblown. In fact, I think Brown is a highly intelligent guy who will have no problem with a usage in the high 20’s and with not being “the guy” every night, or even most nights.
The only way I think we should sign Sochan is if he replaces Dadiet on the roster.
If Leon could salary dump Dadiet, that would free up enough space to add all of Sochan on a vet’s minimum, another vet’s minimum C like Richards, and one of the rooks (preferably Nickel.)
Even though Begley said that they “love” Dadiet, I can’t believe that they are holding on to him for his potential. It must be because they see utility in his “above the minimum” salary in an aggregation scenario.
I agree about Brown.
I would like that too, Z-man. the ideal is to sign Sochan but also sign another vet minimum player who is an actual center.
I don’t know, your post pointing out that Richards was ok when he wasn’t a starter has me wondering if maybe he might be better than advertised in that smaller role.
I also do not see Brown as being some huge diva. I think he maybe has that rap because he is really smart but he also isn’t some super smiley nice guy when he gives interviews. But I don’t think he’s a diva.
I think whatever beef he had in Boston has less to do with his actual role as the secondary guy behind Tatum and more about the lack of respect he felt from the organization and media and fans. Always the one who is dangled in trade talks (and not Tatum ever). He was finals MVP and led Boston last year while Tatum was out but then he’s the one who they want to trade and who is supposedly a problem.
So yeah, I think he will make it work. And I don’t think Lebron thinks he’s the number one option either.
If anything I worry about Maxey because he should be their number one guy but now it may not be clear who is.
But their issues will be health (Embiid and Lebron) and lack of shooting and defense. I don’t think chemistry will be the issue.
Now if they figure out a way to unload Embiid, I will be very worried! Until then, though, I’m not.
My sense is that Richards has a significant “between the ears” problem. He has a lot of physical talent and plenty of fast-twitch ability, but he just doesn’t read plays well and gets there too late or not at all. The quintessential guy in this regard was Amar’e.
Can he be coached up by Brown and his assistants? I will say that I thought KAT was to a degree this kind of “slow thinker” on D, and he made a breakthrough this year that almost no one thought was possible at this point in his career. Same with Clarkson.
But that is something that you can’t assume. Some players have a harder ceiling than others. Maybe Liam Robbins has some developmental potential. Maybe some trade partner softens up going forward. It’s really not a problem that has to be solved right now, just like the backup PG problem last year wasn’t solved until the trade deadline. Patience is probably warranted here.
“If anything I worry about Maxey because he should be their number one guy but now it may not be clear who is.”
Maxey has always come across to me as one of the highest character guys in the NBA. I’d be shocked if he makes any waves whatsoever. As to him being the #1 guy, he will still be the initiator on most possessions when he’s on the court. Now when he passes it to LeBron, then he becomes an off-the-ball threat, which he may actually like. He should be deadly at cutting to the hoop and being on the receiving end of LeBron’s pinpoint passes.
I think the #1 question during the regular season is — will point-KAT be a regular part of the offense? To be honest the players deserved that championship, however there were a lot of shots and tips and 50/50 plays that if they went another way would mean we’d be here wondering if our championship run would end after 54 years. And some of that extra effort or luck or whatever you call it isn’t reproduceable.
Nonetheless I think the offense run through KAT was something that could easily be carried over into the regular season to give the Knicks some lift. If that’s the case, and the Knicks have a bit of a chip on their shoulders and carry a positive attitude during the season, then I think the 55-60 range is entirely possible, even if Mike gives the bench guys some time.
If point-KAT shows up once a month or so, then yeah we should be aiming for the low 50s again.
I wonder how much win totals will be impacted by the anti-tanking measures. Not only is there no incentive to lose, but teams will be highly cognizant of not being relegated to the bottom 3 slots. Last year, a third of the league was in “tanking” range and some were unabashedly tanking. As such, I’m expecting a lot more “trap game” losses this year.
Mike, I think it has to be matchup dependent. KAT was able to carve up Atlanta that way because they’re small, and to do the same to Philly because Embiid was a statue. But it barely worked against Cleveland’s twin towers, and even less against Wemby. In both cases, he did other things instead, but Point KAT was really only a thing in the first two rounds.
Point KAT is less important than Good Defense KAT. The improvement on the defensive end has made KAT into a truly well rounded player: can create his own offense, excellent rebounder, floor stretching shooter, excellent passing big man, strong defender.
He doesn’t need to be “point KAT.” He needs to be “well rounded KAT.”
Nice highlight reel of the 29 point comeback
https://x.com/njshoreknicks/status/2081454594316468360/video/1?s=46
Guys, we won a championship. It’s amazing.
Especially watching OG score more points on Wemby than anyone else in the playoffs and maybe his life
Here’s one more
https://x.com/fasho2k/status/2081726608151302421/video/1?s=46
Alan and Z-Man. I meant to send this the other day, but The Good, Bad and The Ugly is one of my all-time favorite movies. My Grandpa and Dad got me into it. I am a big western fan. I enjoy Spaghetti westerns. Also, like Lee Van Cleef. He’s from NJ! The soundtrack is legendary too! Did you see the other 2 man with no name movies with Clint Eastwood? They are very good too.
On another note, I was thinking of Mitch. Besides missing him on defense, will we also miss him being a lob threat? I don’t think Drummond does much of that, right?
As a fan of basketball first and soccer second, with baseball very far down the list, this is truly the dog days of sports for me
I actually watched a full inning of a Savannah Bananas game yesterday out of desperation
The 76ers are going to be a good test of my view on team building – which is bascially that you need enough of each thing that contributes to winning (verstile scoring, versatile defense, rebounding on both sides, playmaking, shot creation, bench etc…), but to fit it all in you need to limit diminishing returns on expensive scorers otherwise you wind up lopsided. They have so much talent they are going to win plenty of games, but IMO it’s an unbalanced team. They are loaded with scorers. IMO they won’t be able to utilize all that potential fully, but they seem short on defense and bench.
I also worry about Maxey. I worry he’s going to make the same leap Jalen Brunson did in 2024.
I don’t know how the Sixers plan to run this thing but if they put the ball in James & Brown’s hands a lot and let Maxey play off the ball more he might become a superstar next year.
I saw a nice breakdown on X of what Brown changed to help KAT on defense last year. If I can find the link again I’l post it.
Strat that’s why I think Dean Wade will ultimately end up replacing someone in the starting lineup. He’s their best defender and floor spacer, and the only guy who doesn’t need the ball in his hands.
Edgecomb is the easiest guy for him to replace politically but I bet their best lineup will be Maxey-VJ-Brown-Wade-James, and it will awkward every time Embiid comes back from injury and the team gets worse with him there.
If LeBron can somehow convince Joel to come off the bench and dominate second units for 18 minutes a night they might have something.
As long as we’re still improving in our early 30s, it would be nice to meet “doesn’t foul KAT”.
I don’t have an NYT subscription but Alan mentioned he clapped back at this criticism in the interview. Can anyone elaborate? I know he got picked on a little bit, but he also committed a ton of really dumb ones.
Yes.
I’ve been re-watching the Philly series for fun and every time KAT went to the bench we just spammed them with pick and roll.
But what we will miss most is the spacing he creates on offense. Teams often double team him when he’s on the floor to keep him off the boards. It’s not a direct double, but it’s enough to create space. That’s why we’ve always had such extraordinary ORtg’s with him on the floor, even back in the days we were starting RJ Barrett and Julius Randle together.
Andre Drummond also gets offensive rebounds, but he doesn’t do that.
The first link that Owen posted brought back to mind just what an insufferably arrogant prick Wemby was throughout the playoffs.
What’s weird is that I had thought of him as likable prior to the postseason. No more. His mocking of other players when he himself has yet to accomplish shit is only part of it. He really came off as an entitled ass. His laughter at an angry Brunson following Wemby’s uncalled flagrant against him still rankles. Seems Vic has fully absorbed the “I’m the Face of the NBA” narrative and saw no downside to acting accordingly.
Will be interesting to see how he behaves moving forward. He’s still just a young, stupid kid so there’s still a chance he grows out of it. Or he can keep doubling down, safe in the knowledge that he’ll receive continued protection from Adam Silver and his cadre of compliant officials. If he opts for the latter, though, he’d be setting himself up for a Bad Guy role that may not be as commercially lucrative off the court as that of the Gentle Giant many thought of him as prior to the playoffs.
Point KAT is highly valuable because it’s another option that opponents have to consider, even if they have answers for it.
Nick-erbocker3, great post!
Hubert, if memory serves, KAT laughed off the fouling thing by saying stuff like nobody complained about it when I was getting all those steals in the playoffs, and it just means I’m being physical. Which okay, but it strikes me as weirdly blind not to acknowledge what everyone else in the world knows, which is sometimes he commits stupid fouls and gets the team in trouble because he can’t be on the floor for stretches. A lot.
On the other hand I just watched Stranger Than Fiction again last night and goddamn I like that movie. Admittedly I’ve long had a crush on Maggie Gyllenhaal, but I just love how the thing is put together, and its thoughtfulness related to arts and (or even vs.) mortality.
I give KAT a lot of grace regarding his defensiveness because he has endured a ton of criticism over the years, in particular about his D, and in general about not being a “winning” player.
My guess is that he knows he is too foul-prone and will continue to work on it. The most infuriating fouls for me are:
-hooking a defender’s arm while driving
-throwing his hip out on screens
-being off-balance
He already did this last season, Hubie. He put up numbers comparable to any peak Brunson season.
If he takes another leap he’s the clear best small guard in the league.
He had a great regular season but I don’t remember a single thing he did in the playoffs against us.
He’s always been the only ball handler on his team, and his teammates have always been mid.
Wouldn’t shock me if Tyrese Maxey became Steph Curry 2.0 now. That’s the real worry about these Sixers.
Hubert, the link I posted yesterday is free for non-subscribers, but here’s the relevant passage, questions put in bold.
What’s the deal with Howard Beck?
I know he’s been around a while but I never paid attention to his tendencies or biases until he turned up at the ringer, where he’s decided to become the #1 Knicks troll on the planet.
Does he have some bad blood with the organization or the fans? His takes are consistently ridiculous, and he seems to go really far out of his way to announce them.
Anyway he wrote this today:
🙄
Thanks, Alan. That’s a ridiculous reply but like Z-Man, I’ll give him some grace. It seemed like a light hearted interview.
Beck definitely has a history of Knicks-bashing (what long-time beat guy doesn’t, considering Dolan’s relationship with the press?)
Assuming that this is not factoring into his opinion, I really have a problem with it on the merits. But whatever, he’s just a talking head with an opinion.
Not only this, but the anti-tanking changes could also make it harder to pull deadline trades like the excellent Alvarado heist.
Sure, teams will always want more draft capital, but trading decent players to help lower your win total won’t be a thing this year. So it might be harder to trade for a center midseason than it has been in the past.
Not to brag BUT Howard Beck once sent me an email:
“Argh, of course. thank you.
Sent from my Blackberry.”
When I told him JJ Hickson was a King and no longer a Cav.
It’s such a non serious opinion, though. You can like the Sixers, but “it has to be the Sixers”? It’s “hard to see” the best defense in the playoffs containing a group of misfits?
At that point you’re actively throwing your credibility in the trash can and announcing that you’d rather troll Knicks fans than be taken seriously.
I have shared the group’s displeasure with Howard to Howard. (We text occasionally.) I have not attempted to engage him in a debate about it. (This would likely end us texting occasionally.)
Howard and I basically have the same job, only he gets paid for it.
FWIW I only became aware of Beck’s tendencies in the last 2-3 months and was curious if it was a long-running thing. Seems like it is.
In his defense, most Knicks fans are not like us. I imagine if he’s been covering the team a long time, he was probably subjected to a lot of unsavory comments when he was just doing his job.
I like listening to him when he’s on Zach Lowe or the ringer NBA show, I’ve just been distracted by how far out of the way he goes to take what seem like passive aggressive shots at the Knicks.
To each his own.
Beck is a dinosaur from the old days when people read newspapers, kind of like Mitch Lawrence and Berman.
They don’t do too much serious analysis and don’t have many sources left to get meaningful info from.
Particularly dumb about Beck’s take is that we just saw 3/5 of the Sixers’ starting lineup in the playoffs and destroyed them mercilessly. Of their key players, the one who we struggled to contain most was PG13 with his shooting. He’s now gone in favor of a much worse shooter.
On our side, Mitch only played 47 minutes the whole series and had minimal impact on our way to an average MOV of *checks notes* 22.3.
Any lineup they can play for heavy minutes has major questions in terms of shooting, defense, or both. Embiid is never healthy and LBJ has exceeded 60 games played in 2 of the last 6 years.
I just don’t see them being very much better. 48-win team.
ess-dog, I was thinking that same thing. My hope is that teams will definitely have roster deficits and crunches, either overall or positionally. For example, a team that needs shooting due to injury might consider trading for “potential” shooters like Dadiet or Nickel in exchange for their 3rd C. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Strat, I predict James will start focusing on defense and be decent at it since that is what is what is needed. He isn’t able to be a strong two way player anymore but I suspect he can choose one or the other..
PG shot well from 3 but was actually pretty easy to contain. He doesn’t have the gear to consistently beat our guys. He shot under 40% inside the arc and only scored 14.5ppg.
He was a 3&D player against us. He wasn’t creating advantages or making the other guys better.
Also worth remembering that Embiid wasn’t 100% and the biggest boon they may receive from Brown & Bron is resting Embiid the entire regular season.
And so Huk will be their starting center? What could go wrong?
Jaylen Brown isn’t significantly more threatening than George was. In 2024 he put up 40/29/68 shooting splits against us and accounted for almost 30% of Boston’s turnovers. He would be maybe our fourth best player. He’s really around the 50th best player in the NBA, and with his contract I wouldn’t take him over Bridges.
Embiid at 100% is an entirely theoretical concept because he will never be 100% again. If they rest him the entire season they will be worse when he plays because they’ll have no cohesion and zero chemistry.
Embiid doesn’t need to be 100%, he just needs to be able to move a bit on defense.
When i say rest him the entire regular season, I don’t mean it literally. You guys aren’t even trying.
Brown was playing hurt that series.
I’m pretty sure it would shock everyone else on the planet.
Maxey would have to improve he 3 ball shooting from 5-6% while increasing his TS% by about .040 which is massive… don’t even peek at their playoff career numbers.
Maxey is terrific, but Curry is a GOD and 37 yr old Curry is as least as good as a 25 yr old Maxey.
You gave him a truly Sisyphean task.
Jaylen Brown’s superpower with the Celtics last year was that he gave them solid efficiency on sky-high usage. He ate a LOT of innings for them with his 99 TS+ and 36.2 USG%. Alongside Tatum in previous years, those innings weren’t really as valuable.
So I do kind of wonder how that’s going to translate to Philly, where they have lots of guys who will need shots. He’s going to sniff that 36.2 USG again, that’s for sure. In absolute terms he’s a pretty good player, but I just don’t think he’s going to be replicating his career year that he had last year for the Celtics.
Allow me to be less literal here, Bob. I don’t think he’ll shoot exactly like Steph.
That said, I think a massive shooting % increase is in play.
Consider:
Maxey on pull up threes: 31.4%
Maxey on off ball threes: 43.5%
Last year 49% of all his shots were on pull up jumpers, 12% off ball. That’s the kind of shot diet Luka, Brunson, & SGA live on. They’re elite pull up shooters. Tyrese has had to play like them bc he’s been surrounded by bums his whole career but it’s not his strength.
Steph’s shot chart is 26% pull up, 29% off ball. Put Maxey in that kind of role and he may not literally shoot like Steph but that might be a first team all nba player
I think that putting up league-average efficiency at super-high usage is very difficult. Only a very few guys do that consistently, mostly Giannis, Luka and Shai. When the opposing team can gear its entire defense around stopping you and you still put up a 99 TS+, you are creating spacing for other players. The fact that the Celts finished at 56-26 despite their second option (White) having a 91 TS+, third option (Prichard) having a 101 TS+, and 4th option (Hauser) at 101 TS+ suggests that Brown’s 3 primary wingmen didn’t exactly help take defensive pressure off of him. The Celts had the 2nd best offensive rating in the league because of Jaylen Brown, not in spite of it.
As to the scrubs that got way more credit than they deserved imo, Scheierman and Walsh shot better but had usages of 11.9% and 11.7%, respectively. Hugo Gonzales had a TS+ of 97 despite a 11.8% usage. Queta and Garza were mostly opportunistic.
I don’t think he will come anywhere near that usage in Philly. My guess is that he, Maxey, Embiid and LeBron will all be in the 25-30% range, and Edgecomb in the low 20’s.
Mikal shut Maxey down lest we forget
Maxey stunk out the joint against us in the playoffs last year. Across the board: .524 TS%, 99 ORtg, 134 DRtg, 16.7 TOV%. I’d like to crush those numbers up with a credit card and snort them.
victor wembanyama may become the first person to earn a billion dollars on a.basketball court…
better to be feared than loved…at least playing basketball, or in a bronx tale…
This site uses User Verification plugin to reduce spam. See how your comment data is processed.