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Why this is the most important season of Miles McBride’s Knicks career – SNY
Knicks Notes: Jack Kayil to play overseas this season; what’s next for Tyler Nickel – SNY
On This Date in Knicks History: Julius Randle re-commits to New York – Posting & Toasting
Less splash, more dribble – Posting & Toasting
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This Knicks Trade Won Them The Championship! – Knicks Fan TV
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49 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.08.27)”
I read on X that the T-Wolves may have to release someone. If they released DDV, would it be worth taking a flier on him at the minimum even if he can’t make it back until after the all-star break?
We need big guys. We have a glut of small guys/wings. Who would we let go to bring DDV back into the fold?
My understanding is that a player can’t be waived while they are injured, is that not true?
Even if they waive DDV it wouldn’t make sense to pick him up until he is fully recovered, and then use his prorated salary rather than the full minimum.
Long term, maybe he’s our Deuce replacement.
So let’s look at the Miami Heat as they stand right now:
Probably starters:
PF Giannis
C Bam
SF Wiggins
SG TH2 or Klay
PG Davion
Reserves:
Klay or TH2
Jovic
Fonteccio
Kasparis
Portis
Pelle
Dru
Keeping in mind that Spo is an evil genius, I can see some interesting lineup permutations with that group. Beyond legit Giannis durability issues, a lot depends on 2 things:
1) Does Klay have anything left as a top 6-7 rotation player? If he can get back to defending at a high level, a starting lineup with him at the 2 might be very tough to score on
2) internal development. Davion Mitchell has become a proficient 3pt shooter and is very good defensively, and maybe he benefits a lot from Giannis’ gravity. Jovic, Pelle, Jaku and Dru all might have upside
3) did I say that Spo is an evil genius?
Once Spo tinkers with this group and figures things out, they might wind up being a bitch to play. I’m thinking they will be a road team in the first round, and if they can stay healthy, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to draw them. And they still have some second apron room to upgrade.
I think they are being majorly slept on.
Z-Man, I’ve been burning brain synapses — seconds-worth — on Miami’s team. If you’d asked me who most resembles Giannis, I’d have said Bam. A normal coach would probably really struggle with that alignment, but as you say, Spo is indeed an evil genius, so anything might happen.
What makes the Giannis-Bam thing interesting is that they can form a destructive offensive rebounding duo.
Beyond that, I think there are similarities, but also big differences between them.
Pretty sure the Heat are hard capped at the 1st apron.
Ahh, yes, BBA, that’s indicated in spotrac.com. According to AI:
“The Miami Heat are hard-capped at the first apron because their recent roster moves—specifically acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis—involved taking back more salary than they sent out and utilizing trade exceptions generated during the previous season”
So apparently, they have 13 roster spots filled and $4,841,543 in first apron space remaining. They don’t have much maneuverability, at least until Klay and TH2 become trade-eligible. I don’t think they would trade Portis, he’s their only legit backup big. They might be able to aggregate Dru Smith and a minimum for something.
We also might see some waive-and-stretch decisions made in the coming weeks for teams hard-capped at one apron or the other. The Wolves may have no choice on that, because they have no draft assets to use as sweetener to unload DDV or Josh Green’s contracts.
I only knew about the Heat being hard capped at the 1st apron cause Windy and McMahon mentioned it on the Hoops Collective podcast when they were talking about the Klay signing.
All this apron stuff can definitely be confusing but thankfully there are alot of good writers and podcasts that explain the basic stuff we need to know pretty well.
This is where the two beautiful realities coincide: having a genius capologist in Aller and having a championship already under our belts. We have a very high-class problem to solve, and as impatient as we are for an answer, we can finally emotionally afford to be opportunistic as other teams grapple with tough roster decisions. Aller can probably see things from the perspective of other teams’ FOs and wait them out until they soften up.
How on earth is he supposed to get back to defending at a high level at 36.5 years after a blown ACL and ruptured Achilles and all his metrics have been tanking the past two seasons. Even his ts% has been sucky.
Agree. Klay has been subpar for years now. And I say that as being generally a fan of his.
I get the skepticism about Klay. However, he was on a shitty team the last couple of years and this is his last hurrah. He’s a couple of years out from those surgeries and maybe can squeeze a bit more out of those legs in 20 mpg with a legit team around him.
the heat seem real shaky heading in to the season…giannis is oft injured, they’re depending on davion mitchell playing better than ever, and they have limited shooting…
the cavs now, much much different story, adding watson and now with a full training camp with harden…they’re gonna be a tougher out this year…easy to dump/pile on harden, but he’s really really good still against 90% or so of the nba, only a handful of teams that can really expose him, still, even at this advanced age of his…
the pistons did some shuffling – we’ll see…fact is though – both cade and duren are another season in to reaching their prime, which is possibly all nba talent for both, duren’s playoff troubles notwithstanding…
tatum’s back, should be healthier, they did pick up mitch…still, don’t see them any better than maybe 4th or 5th in the east…
the hawks are coming, the hawks are coming…
magic, changed coaches, so we’ll see how that goes…if franz, maybe it’s mo (the one that handles the ball a bunch) can’t stay healthy, especially in the playoffs, they’ll have to get super lucky just to make it out of the first round…
philly philly philly, yeah, they’re gonna be a problem during the season and post season if by some miracle they can keep everyone healthy and play some decent defense…
pacers will have a nice bounce back season…good, middle of the conference team…
it’s gonna be weird playing the wiz, nets, and charlotte and seeing them all go for it now…
i’d bet on the bucks and bulls playing for the last place in the east…
edit: think the magic now only have one of the wagners..mo moved on…is brooklyn in the house…
Normally not a fan of coaches making much impact, but this year the East top regular season standings have a lot to do about coaching. Spo, Carlyle, and Mazzulla teams will be in contention while Atkinson, Nurse, Bickerstaff teams fight for 3-6 spots.
Bernie Ernie. aren’t you forgetting Brown and the Knicks in the top six?
The only problem with the “he’ll try harder on a contender” hypothesis is that at 36.5 his neural connections to his Type II muscle fibers aren’t listening to what his consciousness might be asking.
His FTr is literally 35% lower that Bridges. His defensive metrics have been tanking since he played 32 games coming back in 21-22.
He still demands respect because he can still hit 39% from 3 and must be defended adding to spacing but he is going to be a literal sieve on the other end. Having him and THJr on the floor at the same time is going to be a Sisyphean task for Spo to work around.
Just an opinion.
Nope. We will be 1-2
Can’t argue with you on that, Bob. He’s most likely washed. But with modern training and medicine, and a very reduced role, hey, you never know!
I wouldn’t put Mazzula anywhere near the level of Spo or Carlyle. I think even Celtics fans would argue that he was exposed as kind of a dumbass in that series against us when his team attempted 100 threes in games 1 and 2.
Spo doesn’t exactly have a great regular season track record. Even with the Big 3 they were only the 1st seed once in 4 years.
I’m not downgrading his coaching acumen he’s an obvious HOF level coach I’m just saying his teams usually dont overperform during the regular season, far from it actually.
I do agree with Bob’s take, but I also think there’s a universe where if Klay is actually recovered from all his injuries, he won’t be a complete wash on D. The difference between Klay and say Duncan Robinson is that Klay actually knows HOW to play good D, as he did so all his life (until injuries robbed him of his athleticism the past few years). Positioning and effort can mean a lot, and he knows how to do those things. Even in that world he’ll likely be blown past by the uber athletic wings and guards, but in general I could imagine him more or less holding his own, and not being a disaster.
Or, you know, not. We’ll have to see.
The heat are going to be really annoying to play, they always are. Probably gonna ruin someone’s season as Spo will take apart a team with weaker culture. Probably not us.
Klay used to be good.
“I wouldn’t put Mazzula anywhere near the level of Spo or Carlyle”
Hear you dmar, just putting in tiers.simply asked myself if they are middling and then go 2-8, who gets canned?
Hot take: Klay has always been the Frank Stallone of the Splash Brothers. I’m pretty sure he has never managed a 60% TS even on the Dynasty Warriors.
If it wasn’t for Steph he’d be a rich man’s Landry Shamet.
Think a lot of people forgot how good Giannis really is.
Poor guy just ran into Spo & a maniacal Jimmy Butler while nursing back injury and then super fortunate & hot shooting Indiana teams with a hobled Dame. Same Indiana teams that got Thibs fired.
Miami Heat will be a very tough out come April. This team is two classic Pat Riley diamond in a rough finds from being a legit contender or someone like Malik Beasley to somehow beat the charges and show up to South Beach in March on a minimum deal.
59.8, 59.7, 59.2, 59.1%. You win.
Missed you, Pags.
Peak Klay is both overrated and underrated. But comparing him in any way to fucking Landry Shamet? That’s beyond ridiculous. He’s one of the greatest catch-and-shoot floor spacers in NBA history. Before his knee injury, he had 8 straight seasons of shooting over 40% from 3 on high volume, and is over 40% for his career on over 7,000 attempts. He’s also over 40% in the playoffs on over 1,300 attempts. Plus he’s one of the best defensive SGs of his generation. He is a lock first ballot HOFer. He’s arguably had a better 2-way career than first ballot HOFer Ray Allen (offense is similar, defense gives him the edge).
Landry Shamet is a journeyman scrub who is a nice 8th man on a championship team. Please.
Nick Richards signs with . . . the Heat.
Vet minimum that does not guarantee unless/until he makes the regular season opening night roster.
Mathurin once scored 27 points on 12 shots to win an NBA Finals game. That used to be enough proof.
Guys like Spo & Carlisle are good but I think their impact is overstated in some quarters.
There’s apex coaches (Phil Jackson, Greg Poppovich), smart coaches (Spo, Carlisle, Kerr, Mike Brown), culture coaches (Thibs, Bickerstaff, Mazzulla), and numb nuts (Mitch Johnson).
A smart coach vs a culture coach can be a big problem. But a smart coach vs a smart coach is usually a wash. Maybe Spo can steal a series against Joe Mazzulla, for instance, but he’s not going to steal a series against Mike Brown.
The Pacers could have gotten him back but chose Kelly Oubre instead.
Ray Allen in his Bucks and Sonics days did way more off the dribble than Klay ever did. But that is a pretty great comparison and Klay’s defense was definitely better than Allen’s.
nice pags, now that’s a neat hot take there…sounds like you’re revoking his hall pass…
i’d file him under the done/well cooked/burnt food category…although if giannis can stay on the court, some open shot opportunities…
just looked at the head coaches in the east, some familiar, some names didn’t know…
generally feel like rosters make a bigger difference than coaching, but yeah, whatever, mister mike brown has earned my trust…
even more so, seems like we have 5 starters that are going in to their third season together, beautiful continuity…not just a coach you have to outdo tactically/strategically – you have to contend with 5 guys that have been together for a while…few guys from the bench too…
ugh, don’t wanna jinx nuthin’, sure feels like we are still ascending… fingers and toes crossed…
edit: okay, looks like the toe crossing thing is harder than it sounds…
crossing fingers while knocking ON wood….yeah, that should do it…
Because it’s now knee jerk, I did the Ray Klay comparison. Unsurprisingly, very similar, Ray was a better rebounder and passer (or assists collector at least). Otherwise the differences were pretty snore (Ray won a fair share more, but by tiny bits). Oddly Ray had a 2.9 BPM to Klay’s 0.4. Even though it is poo-pooed, Ray’s VORP of 57.6 blew Klay’s doors off (17.6).
Don’t shoot the messenger…
Mathurin once scored 27 points on 12 shots to win an NBA Finals game. That used to be enough proof.
where was this energy when bro was literally pobo of the knicks and wouldn’t even offer leon powe the minimum after he scored 21 pts on 7 shots to beat the lakers in game 2
Unfortunately for Mathurin the NBA Finals is 7 games long, not 1 game.
Some people have also hypothesized that defense and passing are part of playing basketball. Mathurin is not one of them.
Extremely talented player but he doesn’t contribute to winning anywhere near as much as his talent and scoring suggest he should.
Kuminga took less money to play for Minnesota than he could have gotten from the Lakers. From the Athletic:
This way he gets the opportunity to get much more money after next season, but it still makes the Lakers look quite mortal.
Thank you, jibberish-bot, for the trip down memory lane. But Powe blew out his ACL shortly after his glo up. Mathipoo may still have some game left yet.
But when Hali’s tendons went the way of Powe’s, Math actually carried the team in Game 7 too.
If these aprons can turn NBA finals heroes into make-good journeymen within a year, then, well, I just think he should still make the hall of fame is all.
Ray Allen was for sure a more skilled all-around offensive guard than Klay, and probably a better player overall. We mostly know him from his very late prime (he didn’t get to Boston until he was 32) when he was relegated to a low-usage sniper role. But BPM and VORP don’t do Klay justice. We all know enough to respect Klay’s defense, yet he generally posted a negative DBPM.
But calling him a rich man’s Landry Shamet who rode Steph’s coattails is pretty bizarre.
The team scored a whopping 91 points and lost by 12. He had a team worst -14. What exactly was he carrying them to?
Bennedict Mathurin : Donnie Walsh :: RJ Barrett : Li’l Penny
(to be fair, BM was very good overall in the playoffs that year)
I checked the box score. In the decisive 3Q he was -14 in 7 minutes, missed all his shots, and had a turnover.
He didn’t score a point in the second half until it was 92-70 with ~6 minutes to go. Then he scored 16 pts in garbage time to cut the lead to 12.
https://www.nba.com/game/ind-vs-okc-0042400407/box-score?period=All
84 days and counting ’til gta 6 releases…
was just watching the new gameplay trailer…
looking forward to encountering some of these new age npcs the game will be sporting…
it looks gorgeous, can’t wait to meet its HAL…
no date yet for online multi-player environments…
I’m kinda glad we didn’t go for Nick Richards, too boring.
Wow.
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