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5 memorable moments from Mike Breen’s appearance in SNY booth – SNY
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Knicks Notes: Jack Kayil to play overseas this season; what’s next for Tyler Nickel – SNY
Pod Strickland Episode 621: Defining Decisions – The Strickland
Luchasaurus got his AEW tag partner Jack Perry into the Knicks! #AEW – Knicks Film School
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27 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.08.28)”
Many of the podcasts I consumed vigorously for basketball content have switched over to covering the NFL 🤮
I need a tastycakes extension for the world that makes all things football disappear.
Great episode of Locked on Knicks with Sam Quinn of CBS Sports recently about all the big and small moves that went right over Leon’s tenure to get us a Championship, and it’s a pretty amazing list (my favorite is when Shamet got hurt and we couldn’t keep him on the roster, so we traded up for the 1st pick in the G-League draft to grab him.)
But one thing I thought was interesting is that Quinn said if there was a basketball reason for not going over the 2nd apron this year, it could be that the FO thinks they might have to replace Hart in the starting lineup soon, since he’s 31.5 y/o and his game is based mostly on athleticism.
That would be a cold move, but not an unprecedented one (see Divincenzo, Donte).
Thoughts?
Thanks for mentioning Locked On Knicks, ess dog. Somehow that one eluded me all year.
I could absolutely see them wanting to replace Hart in the starting lineup eventually, but unless they’re planning to do that before the trade deadline this year, Quinn’s argument feels like a non sequitur.
FWIW, I think in Landry & Deuce we have decent Hart replacements on hand. And if we’d been allowed to keep Sergio DeLarrea, we’d have a young one to groom as well.
I think trying to find a basketball rationale for Dolan’s mandate is still a dead end.
That is a fair thought as the ultimate hustle bunny is sure to decline precipitously.
I am a huge fan of Kel’el Ware and though many might platz at the thought, that works in the trade machine. He could not only back up KAT but play with him.
From the Buck’s POV the espn trade machine says that trade makes the Bucks 5 wins better, FWIW.
Ducking for the barrage of rotten tomatoes.
I don’t know why people seem to think Milwaukee is eager to trade a a 22 yr old 7 footer who shot .395 from three and accrued 2 blocks and 15 boards per 36 last year. If he was my player, I’d make him untouchable AF.
I don’t know why anyone would platz at the thought (though to be fair I don’t know what platz means… I’m assuming it doesn’t mean “wildly agree”). Ware has been brought up many times as the one guy who would make staying under the second apron worth it this year.
But I think ess-dog is correct. Early on I thought he might get flipped but Milwaukees seems to be justifiably in love. Trying to get him now is like trying to get Jalen Duren after Hartenstein left.
The genius Spo was far from in love with Ware.
First of all, are the Bucks sure he is the 39.5% 3 point shooter from last year or the 31.5% shooter from the previous year. As the Knicks that is a bet worth taking but the Bucks have other problems.
They don’t own their own #1 pick in 27, 28 and 30 so tanking does them no good. They are in Milwaukee and need to put fannies in the seats the next few seasons in February. Giannis isn’t there anymore to sell seats. If they win 25 games next season, no one will buy a seat for years.
They need to win some games and at least be semi competitive. ESPN trade machine says that swap makes them 5 wins better. The Fanspo trade machine says that heads up trade makes the Bucks 6 wins better. Those aren’t my calculations as a Knick’s fan. I don’t know how accurate they are, but they seem to think Hart would add a bunch of wins to a team that needs wins to sell seats.
That’s the argument. Whether it is a good one is in the eye of the beholder.
Hart is my favorite Knick (after Jalen), but I’d still have to co-sign that trade. Brutal business, is sport.
On the flip side, I doubt Jalen would give anything back in his next contract without his bro there.
I’ve always thought the same thing. Ware was a great get for them—why would they want to ship him off, especially to us? No one is in a mood to help us in any way right now—we have to do it on our own.
Milwaukee wants future assets. If we had any chance to get Ware it would be with picks and young players. Maybe Kolek, Dadiet, our 2032 1st, and some combination of future 2nds and pick swaps.
Honestly I don’t even know if all of that would be enough but they don’t want Hart or Bridges and we probably shouldn’t move either of them for an unproven player anyway.
Before the season starts I’m planting my flag in De Larrea and Maleek Thomas as the players I wanted and who we could have drafted with our picks this year.
I think both players will be good soon and could have really bolstered our youth and future prospects.
Thomas could have been signed to a zero year minimum or even a two-way and De Larrea could have taken Clarkson’s spot.
Or we could have even let Alvarado go. I really like him but honestly Kolek is probably ready for a real role and Alvarado is a luxury we could have sacrificed.
I was also really high on Maleek and can’t believe we passed on him. I don’t think he has a Maxey ceiling, but he probably has a Quickley floor.
De Larrea is good but I think his below average athleticism lowers his ceiling. Plus I like what we have in Kolek.
Yeah, fumbling De Larrea seems like a bad miss
I planted my flag in DeLarrea a month ago. He’s not on the front office, though. He was a casualty of Dolan’s mandate.
Maleek Thomas could be, too, though it’s unclear if they actually wanted him at 31.
Basically any rookie who wouldn’t sign for the $1.4M rookie minimum was off the table for us.
I still like Kolek, too. The reason I liked DeLarrea is that at 6’6″ with a 6’9″ wingspan he can (eventually) both back Brunson up and play with him when he need that second ballhandler.
It’s a little more complicated than that, and we really couldn’t have done either without consequence.
DeLarrea’s rookie salary is $3.1M. Clarkson only counts at $2.4M. We’re going to end up pennies under the SA, so that small difference matters. If we’d given him Clarkson’s spot, that would have also cost us either Landry or Alvarado.
And you can’t take someone with the 31st pick and offer him no money or a two way. Maybe legally you can, but it would be kind of disgraceful to try.
Incidentally, that’s why we’ve been trading all the way down in the draft & selecting guys who we can bargain with. You can force Diawara and Nickel to take the rookie minimum because they’re lucky they got drafted. You can’t do that to a guy just outside the first round.
You can also get Dadiet to take 80% instead of 120% for the same reason. We probably tried to do that with DeLarrea and traded him when we couldn’t.
nbatv is showing a replay of a february matchup against the bulls…
just heard the announcers mention the possibility of the knicks winning a championship last season…
ha, it happened…
we are going to get soooooooooo much hate next season from the rest of the league…
the team will be bathing in salty fan and media tears all season long…
have a feeling this will be one of the nba’s most watched 👀 season’s ever…
worldwide fan interest in the eastern conference should be way way up…lots of orange and blue being worn – every where 😁
thinking the highest predicted/projected eastern conference team win total is around 54…
think both the cavs and pistons surpass that mark by at least a few games…maybe we hit on 55…
What we could have done…. is sign Mitchell Robinson, keep Sergio DeLarrea, let the front office take their favorite player at 31, and sign Deuce McBride to an extension.
But James Dolan said that would be suicide.
lots of run for huk, playing in this game against the bulls last season…
he’s not very fluid offensively, moves fast, just not with clear purpose all the time…a little less issues with that on defense, quick reaction time…thinking how much he’ll benefit getting to play with lebron…
huk seems very coachable, has a super high motor, and is extremely athletic…and, he’ll get a nice shiny ring very soon…
think lebron can help him learn how to be a solid nba level basketball player…
even with a year of skinny embiid, expect him to get a bunch more minutes on court next season…
or, maybe he’s just not that good…
Everyone take a deep breath and go watch highlights of Tyler Nickel shooting the ball
Vecenie was super high on Cam Whitmore out of Villanova:
His biggest problem has been injuries so far, but I hope he actually gets real minutes somewhere.
Meleek actually did sign for the zero year minimum with Cleveland. And any 2nd rounder can end up as a two-way. We saved no potential money passing on him.
As for De Larrea. We have $3,273,768 left under the 2nd apron which is $824,327 more than a 2nd year minimum contract. De Larrea signed for $732,859 more than the 2nd year minimum so we could have signed him into Clarkson’s slot and still had enough for one more minimum contract under the apron.
There is no good money argument as to why we passed on them.
Shit, you’re right (about Thomas… I imagine that $732,859 for SDL is going to matter when all is said and done). They signed him for the zero year minimum in year 1 and then jumped him to $2.3M in year 2. I just looked at the total contract (4 years, $9.2M) and assumed it wasn’t clever.
I’m surprised Aller has never used that trick.
Not sure what this is but this throwback to the Sixers series made me chuckle
https://x.com/fairjordan_/status/2093147410155381004/video/1?s=46
“There should be a paywall to watch this thing”
Chris Thile is amazing for sure, but when Mehldau plays I kind of want everybody else to go away.
This is just a minimum contract. It matches the table digit for digit. There’s just a big jump from 0 years of service to 1yos.
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