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79 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.08.31)”
“Do you think there is anything to be said for Mikal Bridge’s dedication to his consecutive game streak being a negative on him as a player?”
Now that we won a championship, no. But had we lost, maybe. The dude plays hard if not always well. Never saw him dog it.
It’s a really cool streak, and well earned and mostly deserved, but winning comes first. I doubt if Mike Brown would be the one to sit him if he’s healthy.
I don’t know about a hard “no” as an answer to that question, but since we won it all, I would definitely say at least “much less so.”
Bridges is a freak. His personal goals and team goals are in perfect allignment. I say let him be…would encourage him to get wasted at least once a month though….he’s harboring a ton of demons and needs to let them loose periodically.
I find it utterly shocking that the Jaylen Brown return game isn’t until January 21. Wouldn’t you think that’s one of the most anticipated games on the entire schedule? To not schedule it on opening week, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas day, seems kinda idiotic. Also, why didn’t Silver put them in the same Cup group?
Seems like a major marketing miss to me.
Agree Zman…thought that would have been the season opener myself.
Only thing that comes to mind, is they’re protecting Boston’s franchise reputation from this massive blunder under new ownership.
Trading Brown to a division rival team 2 months after they eliminated Boston from playoffs AND before Lebron made his decision was the worst move I’ve ever seen Boston make.
Brad Stevens built a super team in Philadelphia.
The draws are randomly selected, not decided by the league.
He’s harboring a ton of demons? Needs to let loose? He seems like nothing but a high achiever to me. 96th ranked recruit out of HS and worked his way to earning a quarter of a billion dollars. Never misses a day of work. Never dogs it on the court. Never the slightest hint of trouble off the court. Not afraid to speak his mind, Seems like he doesn’t need much help from us….
Well, I don’t necessarily agree that it was a terrible move. Brown’s contract on top of Tatum’s was a time bomb, and the analytics made it look like Brown was even more overpaid as is, let alone on the max extension he felt he deserved.
Could they have gotten more in return? Maybe, but then you are guaranteeing a tumultuous summer. Could they have called his bluff and forced him to play out his contract, which is what I would have done? Maybe, but that might have gotten super-ugly as well.
I think Brad (and probably new ownership as well) doesn’t like drama. He saw that without Tatum the team could still win over 50 games. Now he’s probably thinking that Tatum plus PG13 over Brown is an upgrade from last year, that Mitch gives them the very thing they needed, and that there is enough internal development with Hugo, Baylor, and Walsh, plus Derrick White being better than he was last year, is a winning formula, at least in terms of team chemistry.
Then why do you offer him + picks for Giannis? Is Giannis going to be cheaper next 3 yrs? – No, he’s not.
Very interested to see how Mitch is used this upcoming season. Will he start? Will he play back-to-backs? Will he play 24-30 minutes per game? Will he hit 50 percent of his free throws? The answers to these questions will determine whether we dodged a bullet and handed that bullet over to the Celts, or vice versa. Well, not exactly vice-versa, but you know what I mean.
Healthy Giannis is 1000X better than Brown and making the same money. But that deal was nowhere near close to being made. The Bucks knew they could get a better package from someone else and if the Celts wanted him they would have to throw in a bunch of young players.
The thing is, Brad et. al. knew this and never made an offer good enough fot the Bucks to accept. The Bucks got a much more intelligent package back from the Heat, and no way that Boston could compete with that without decimating their team and having apron problems on top of that.
Giannis hasn’t been healthy for the playoffs in many years now:
2021 Eastern Conference Finals (Right/Left Knee Hyperextension): Antetokounmpo hyperextended his knee in Game 4 against the Atlanta Hawks. Miraculously avoiding structural damage, he missed only two games and returned for the NBA Finals, leading Milwaukee to a title with a historic 50-point Game 6 performance.
2023 First Round vs. Miami Heat (Lower Back Contusion): Giannis took a hard fall in Game 1 and suffered a bruised lower back. He missed Games 2 and 3, attempting a gritty return in Game 4 where he famously needed IV fluids after pushing through exhaustion as the Bucks were eventually upset.
2024 Regular Season / Playoffs (Left Soleus/Calf Strain): Right before the 2024 postseason, Giannis suffered a severe calf strain that forced him to miss the entirety of the Bucks’ first-round series against the Indiana Pacers, which Milwaukee lost in six games.
Doogie, I don’t think it makes sense to look at it that way. We know what we had in Mitch and you kinda haver to assume that he would have given us the same production in the same minutes next year to evaluate the decision.
The “bullet dodged” thing is more of a long term question. In order to view it as such, certain conditions would have to exist.
1. Leon finds a roughly analogous player to replace him on the cheap this year(that guy is NOT Andre Drummond, barring a time machine.)
2. It can be shown that having more future cap/roster options going forward helps keep the band together for more runs at the finals while skirting the apron issues.
So for now, Dolan bit the bullet. There’s no dodging this year.
None of those injuries should be considered chronic.
For sure agree that Drum is not the guy. I like him plenty as the *third* center—he’s an upgrade over Huk. Still need a second-string defensive guy.
My point was that if money was the issue why beg to trade him for another player who makes same amount of money over next three years. It was a series of bad decisions over several months that culminated in Philadelphia super team.
As a GM you never dangle your own Finals MVP candidate publicly in a trade proposal…that was the first domino. Plus PG13 is the worst contract in the league. Guy made over $400m calling in sick non stop.
Predicting the future is a hazardous occupation…but odd makers say Brad Stevens created an NBA finals team in Philadelphia over night. As a Knick fan, – I’m like WTF dude???
https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/nba/nba-eastern-conference-odds-bm23/
I also think that the Celts are in an excellent position to make another move. They have first apron space and some assets and salary to trade.
Z, if you are speaking of Giannis, he has had 4 significant calf injuries since the April 24 playoffs. That is sort of the definition of chronic.
Falling on your back is clearly not a chronic injury.
If you were speaking of Mitch, then I’m sorry I missunderstood.
Director, I think you are interpreting the situation in a jaded manner.
Re: dangling Brown for Giannis, I get that Brown feels disrespected, but come on, he’s not anywhere near Giannis as a player. And he gave no indication that he would accept anything less than a full max extension. So I don’t really blame Brad for interpreting “I’m a fan fave, finals MVP, and MVP candidate, pay me or else” as a demand to either be paid or traded to someone who might pay him.
PG13’s contract is bad, but it’s smaller and expires earlier. Next year it’s exactly the kind of expiring salary that can be used to facilitate a trade for a star. Flexibility-wise, it was a no-brainer.
I would also pump the brakes on a “Sixers are a NBA finals team”. stuff. So much depends on Embiid’s creaky knees, LeBron continuing to defy Father Time, and guys who aren’t great shooters all becoming great shooters. The playoffs are 82 long grueling games away.
Muscle injuries are generally not considered to be chronic. They just need to be rehabilitated properly. His calf is no more of a risk than OG’s hamstring. You take that level of risk 100 times out of 100 over a chronic/degenerative tendon/cartilage/ligament issue. In fact, I would say that Brown’s knee is a bigger issue than Giannis’ calf.
The one caveat is that calf injuries are often precursors of achilles problems. There is nothing more devastating than a supermax player blowing out an achilles, and the Celts obviously know that first hand. One would think that their medical team would know the risks associated with Giannis’ history, meaning that if they were willing to swap out Brown for him, they were fully aware of any health risks involved.
That might be true if Embiid made an off season trip to Lourdes and they changed the rules to play with 4 or 5 balls.
The real problem with Embiid is you have to handle him with such kid gloves in the regular season that when you get to the playoffs he doesn’t have the cardio to be effective in the fourth quarter of close games. He moves lees and less as the game extends.
Giannis is way better than Brown. Like way, way better.
Boston arguably just got the better player, a player who fits better next to Tatum, plus picks.
hear you Z man, but I’m intepreting it from a Knicks fan perspective… maybe it is jaded but I also dont think its fair to defend the lunacy of Brad Stevens. I said the same for Ujiri when he dumped Siakam for a bag of chips after trading OG for 2 flawed players that make 1.5x of his salary. This trade will get Stevens fired too.
Are you tell me that Stevens did everything correct and other GMs should use this as a model on how to run a 50 win team that is adding an MVP level player next season in a weak eastern conference in which the Knicks are the toughest opponent to get back to the finals?
With all due respect, I don’t think anyone compared Giannis’ repeated calf injuries to Oden’s or Embiid’s degenerative knees.
However if you believe that OG’s hammy injuries are as likely to lead to season ending/career reducing injuries than the calf injuries Giannis has received, then we’ll just respectfully disagree.
WTF is Enes Kanter’s deal? Is he actually transphobic or just being a troll for his own amusement? Does he only believe in standing up for Frank Ntilikina against bullying?
Phila is a finals favorite with a 20 minute per game part time Embiid.
Lebron won a playoff series in April with Gleague level talent. Now he has a two way finals MVP and a young multi All star + VJ.
Time will tell, Director, but my feeling is that Philly would only qualify as a superteam if it were 2018. Embiid is too damaged, Brown is too inefficient, LeBron is too old. They could put good stretches together, but it would take a miracle for them to go deep in the playoffs.
And I don’t believe Stevens needs to be concerned about his job security. He just saved Boston’s new owners a boatload of money, like hundreds of millions of dollars, and built the flexibility to make moves in the years to come. They are much better positioned than they were.
Giannis felt well enough in his last playoffs to play 38 minutes per game, average a respectable 33/15/7, and beat up Haliburton’s dad.
Bob, I agree that Giannis would be an injury risk with his history at his age and on his contract, and it’s part of why I was not a fan of all the Giannis talk here. But it probably hasn’t helped that he’s been a 1-man team with a usage in the mid 30’s for the last half-decade. He will probably benefit from 6 full months of rest, rehab, and training to get that calf right. I think it would have been a good gamble at the right price for the Celts, but the price they offered was way too low. He should have a reduced workload in Miami, but that seems like a clunky team with not enough shooting to give him consistent room to operate.
“Giannis felt well enough in his last playoffs to play 38 minutes per game, average a respectable 33/15/7, and beat up Haliburton’s dad.”
In a series that his team lost 4-1. Please note that a team with Giannis on it hasn’t actually won a playoff series since…….checks notes…….2022.
Since winning the bubble title LeBron was 16-26 in the playoffs with the Lakers plus they missed the playoffs entirely one season. Playoff LeBron is not exactly someone worth being scared of especially now that he’s in his 40’s.
I think you’re being pretty hard on Stevens, Director. He made the best of a bad situation, and I don’t think he cares much about the preseason hype for a Sixers team that can neither shoot nor defend well enough to win the East.
Paul George & Mitchell Robinson are going to fit very well next to Tatum. Then in a year George is a $57M expiring. They also got an unprotected Clippers pick in 2028 and an unprotected Philly pick in 2031.
$57M in expiring salary plus two primo unprotected 1sts is the beginning of an extremely good trade offer next summer, when someone like Jokic or Anthony Edwards is very likely to be the prize of the next big sweepstakes.
Boston’s biggest problem is Derrick White’s potential decline. He slipped hard last year. If that is the start of something, they’re fucked. (And no offense, Derrick, you seem like a lovely guy, but I’ve got my fingers crossed.)
Boston chose the wrong guy to get rid of and it will become very apparent by January.
Lebron is about to fall off a cliff.
Knicks in 5.
Derrick White should be just fine. He just turned 32 and played 77 games and led the team with 2,625 minutes. He had an off shooting year but still put up a 3.2 BPM. I definitely would not bet against him.
I also think Boston is going to regret signing Mitch.
Maybe they’re going to go full on platoon with him and the other dude splitting minutes evenly but I still would not trust Mitch to play anything more than 25 minutes a game and I doubt he’s gonna play more than 60 games this year. I also think we were able to survive his free throw shooting in the playoffs because he was rarely playing more than 15 minutes a night but at 25 to 30 a night, it becomes a much harder thing to hide.
This is not the same as saying we shouldn’t have brought him back. We should have. But I think Boston is going to wake up in January and realize Brown is better than Tatum and they’re overpaying for a center who can only play limited minutes and can’t hit free throws.
White’s production on both ends tailed off noticeably in the second half last year. That was the primary reason I was shorting the Celtics so hard in the playoffs.
I don’t think he’s actually in decline but one can hope.
This was an underreported element of the Brown saga. It wasn’t just Tatum & Brown. The Celtics thought Brown’s ball dominance was negatively impacting White, too.
😊
rooting for this too…boo boston…
I see it differently, Swifty. The Celtics can play Mitch at the start of every quarter, when hacking Mitch becomes suicidal because of the bonus. We couldn’t do that because of KAT.
Sure but he’s also getting paid more than to just only play the start of each quarter.
And even if a team isn’t purposefully employing Hack a Mitch full on, it still makes sense to foul him when he goes up for a shot because he’s most likely to miss his free throws. Boston still has to contend with how many minutes they can play him before that becomes untenable. If he was making 10 million a year, not a big deal. But he’s getting paid like a starter now.
I think they were just saying money is the issue because they didn’t want to say “this guy’s an asshole and we’re done.”
The way I think they see it, Swift, is they’re paying Mitch & Queta $27.5M combined for 48 minutes of elite rim protection and dominant offensive rebounding. That seems like good value (the Thunder pay that much for iHart and he only plays 24 minutes).
Speaking of iHart, I expect it to be like what we got from Mitch and him that year when we had the #3 offense in the NBA because they were dominating possession. And I don’t think they’ll have any regrets signing him unless he gets hurt.*
* does it make me a bad person if on some level I want this to happen? I love Mitch, but god damn it will make me feel so much better if he’s hurt next year.
To be clear, the free throw shooting with Mitch is a secondary concern for me. It’s more the idea that he’s supposed to be a starter now or at the minimum split evenly the center minutes with Queta and the injury concerns that come with him playing more minutes and games.
Hot take: 2027 Sixers = 2004 Lakers
I think rooting for a player to get injured is not a good look, but I freely admit when Hali went down I might have smiled.
As to Mitch, I wish him well, but if he got hurt, I’d feel bad for him but glad that the Celtics were worse, which is how I feel about all opponents except for the truly despised few, which right now are Hali and Embiid. Wemby’s not there yet, but he’s got 2 strikes.
I wonder if the Knicks will try to do to Mitch what they did to Wemby, which is to try to run him ragged on D by putting him in every action. Mitch seemed to get gassed pretty quickly, maybe as a consequence of protecting that foot.
Exactly my point. Joe and Brad could have done a better job to wheel him back in so that he can be their asshole.
He was obviously throwing a mini tamper tantrum ala RJ Barret post Donovan MItchel trade. We have seen players and their agents try this technique plenty of times after a trade falls apart…sometines it actually works. That shit deal for PG could have been executed at any time during the season, if necessary.
Even before trading him, they leaked out negative shit like “he’s always the smartest guy in the room” – give me a break. Since when do we trade MVPs because their IQ is too high or they rub people the worng way? – How did that help anyone save face or even his maintain his trade value…they did him dirty and karma is a bitch.
If the Knicks weren’t in chamopiship window, I would semi root for the cheesteaks to close out the series in Boston and head to the finals.
I feel like there’s a slight but meaningful difference between “rooting for someone to get hurt” (not what I said) and “on some level I want this to happen” because “it will make me feel so much better.” I will be relieved if Mitch misses significant time, not happy.
That said, I was totally rooting for Halliburton to get hurt in game 7, and yeah it made me happy.
That’s 100% because he did the choke sign, though… which is ironic bc I actually admired the move on some level… he made himself a heel and the world needs heels… but the whole point of being a heel is people root for your demise, so…
And then it wasn’t even a game-winning three like he thought it was, either.
“Hot take: 2027 Sixers = 2004 Lakers”
As if I would remember anything about the Lakers from over 20 years ago. My best guess is that the team being referenced is the one with Karl Malone, Gary Payton, and the like. (We tried that, too, in the Jason Kidd season.)
Maybe. But I think the organization had been doing that for a long time and just didn’t think he was worth it anymore. It also seems like Tatum and White were done with the guy, too.
I know they won a title (when they miraculously played 4 teams in a row whose best player was injured), but the Tatum Brown Celtics have largely been known for choking in the playoffs, which they just did again in spectacular fashion. Maybe they didn’t want him to be their asshole anymore.
FWIW the Celtics did not smear Brown after. The “smartest guy in the room” thing came from Colin Cowherd citing NBA sources, not Celtic sources.
“I also think Paul George might be better than Jaylen Brown.”
sigh
He changed his mind about that one.
He threw Brunson to the floor, deliberately elbowed Naz in the throat, jumped at OG’s legs, hit KAT in the face, made the “in your head” gesture to Mitch, continually said the Spurs were the better team, denigrated us earlier in the year – what more do you need?
I didn’t change my mind Doogie I just added it by accident while I was editing.
If you’re starting a team, Brown > George, of course. But if you want the ball in the hands of Jayson Tatum & Derrick White (and why wouldn’t you?) I think Paul George might be better suited to a tertiary role than Brown.
Throw in George has one less year, gives them much less headaches, and they get two prime picks, and I think Stevens is more likely to win another executive of the year award when he’s done maneuvering than get fired.
Hubert, PG13 will call out sick ~ 50% of the season that he’s not on stereoids.
Tatum is not a leader of men. Neither is Brown but together they won a championship and went to finals.
Would have gone to finals twice more but Tatum twisted his ankel in game 7 vs Miami and they blew 20 point leads vs Brunson who then made them pay. Basically, EC finals was pretty much the floor since they were drafted.
Last season was an anomoly in chemistry issues. They just didnt have the size to deal with Embiid went ice cold from three & Tatum was unavailable for game 7 at home again.
You don’t break this type of success up…because your finals MVP is trying to annoy his way into an extension.
Let’s circleback when the new ownership dumps the entre blame on Stevens and fires him.
This is really the crux of it all. The Celtics certainly believe in him but you may be right.
They always go ice cold from three, though. And I think Brown was doing a lot more than try to annoy his way into an extension.
I like what they did this summer. I’m a little biased because I love Mitch. But I think they got better, rid themselves of a headache, and set themselves up to make a huge deal next summer. And when I say I huge I mean like Jokic.
Jokic could just as easily retire as he could move to a different team/city.
The 2004 Lakers did reach the NBA Finals so I’m hoping the 2027 Sixers are worse than the 2004 Lakers.
I feel that Wemby deserves the same grace that any 22yo deserves. He needs to grow up. If he hasn’t learned and fully embraces the villain role, then yeah,
Wemby’s a bitch
The changeover definitely seemed purposeful on Wemby’s part. He wasn’t like that when last season began.
Right, when he was 21.
In general, I think we forget that most 21-22yo’s don’t know their asses from their elbows and yet we expect more from professional athletes even though the money and fame only exacerbates the issue. I’m therefore not going to jump to a conclusion about him until he has a chance to learn and correct his petulant behavior. If he decides that he actually wants to be the villain like Trae Young and Hali did, that will be strike three for me.
I should add that I have a lot more grace for those who grew up under very difficult circumstances, such as extreme poverty or parental neglect/abuse. Obviously that doesn’t apply to Wemby, who seems to have had it pretty good, unless you want to call being “spoiled by early success” some kind of hardship. But so many child stars seem to suffer emotionally in some way.
That made me realize that I have not seen much, if anything at all, about Wemby’s upbringing in France re: his circumstances as a kid, his family, etc.
They were also going for their fourth title in five years, so, really, they have nothing to do with anything since the 1960s.
I haven’t made any conclusions about him, I’ve simply watched what he does on the court and feel that, at best, it’s unsportsmanlike, and at worst, he might genuinely hurt somebody. My feeling are much less based on what happens off the court – which is why I don’t particularly hate Hali or Trae Young, who don’t commit thuggish fouls on the court. Wemby does. Yeah, he’s 21, but he’s also entitled, spoiled, and unchecked by the league. I did stupid stuff at 21 but none of it could have ended someone’s career (or at least playoffs).
I don’t think he changed at all. He just had good PR and no one was watching him closely.
Once the spotlight found him he showed us who he is.
And then he posted more contrived videos of him drawing in gramercy park to make you think he’s something else.
This guy’s the fucking worst. And he’s French. It’s all going to come to a head in LA in 2028.
Dude you haven’t stopped hating LeBron since The Decision.
I like this Celtics team a LOT (you know what I mean).
As fas as I am concerned, the way to look at it is that they were good last year, Tatum is better than Brown and they added George and Mitch. They also have a couple of players that may develop. They should be better this year even if you think they overachieved last year. They may be the regular season favorite to finish with the best record in the east.
Well, he is pretty easy to hate. 😉
Wemby is a dick and I’m not so sure it’s because he’s young.
“Dude you haven’t stopped hating LeBron since The Decision.”
Never hated LeBron as a person or a player. Just don’t want to have to root for him as a hanger-on in a Knicks uniform after he spurned us in such publicly embarrassing fashion. I guess that’s too complicated for you to understand in the binary choice world that you live in.
Yeah I’ve probably seen 100,000 22 year old athletes come through the NBA in my life and I’ve never seen one be as reckless, petulant, and entitled as Wemby. Dude’s not out there trying to be a showman, he’s out there trying to injure people.
I think it would be a whole lot less frustrating if he actually got called for the foul, though. You want to commit flagrants, ok. But he’s got to get suspended like everyone else does. The respect he gets from the refs & the league is unearned and bestowed.
There was a heavyweight boxing match over the weekend in which the very talented 21-year old heavyweight Moses Itauma was facing a durable but plodding opponent named Filip Hrgovic. Itauma was attempting to become the second youngest heavyweight ever to win the title. Itauma was, on many occasions leading up to the match, dismissive of Hrgovic’s chances.
In terms of boxing skill, it was not an even match. Itauma was lighting Hrgovic up at will. Scoring really whenever he wanted to. After about 4 or 5 rounds, it was clear that Hrgovic was not going to be able to win rounds.
Itauma only needed to keep putting rounds in the bank, and he would have coasted to an easy decision. But Itauma seems like kind of an arrogant guy, and he hadn’t faced a durable opponent like Hrgovic. So he kept attacking, actually increasing his pace of attack, going for the knockout. Eventually he ran out of gas, got to a point where he could hardly stand anymore, and almost collapsed in the ring, out of sheer exhaustion more than anything Hrgovic was doing. They had to stop the fight in the 9th round and award it to Hrgovic before Itauma got killed.
There’s no questioning the kid’s talent. But he is the heavyweight boxing version of Victor Wembanyama. His lack of humility cost him dearly. Itauma isn’t a dirty fighter the way Wemby is a dirty basketball player, but it was a similar story of entitlement getting defeated by professionalism.
It’s funny JK you could have gone with the lack of humility or the totally gassed part. Either would have worked.
This is always fun to watch:
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DZbWRd3NThJ/
Side note I’m kind of digging the way this Lanterns show depicts Hal Jordan. Pretty creative.
Itauma throwing haymakers in the 8th round despite winning the first 7 rounds and scoring a knockdown was the equivalent of the Spurs shooting a bunch of threes in the third quarter of game 4.
Lanterns is fun
I’ll try to have something on the web about the journey… at least that’s my plan… but i’m good at planning to do things, and then sometimes i get lazy when it’s time to put the plan in action… LOL
I’ve put your two comments together because i’m not really a bucket list type, Bo, but the next one i want to do is exactly “El camiño de Santiago”, or The way of St. James. It’ll have a lot more nature, as Donnie would prefer, and it’s also my preference. It was just that to get to Fatima we didn’t have a choice but to go by road in like 70% of the time. Fortunately at some point my son started prefering the off-road, someday i’ll convince him to go hike on the mountains with me. 🙂
That looks like a great hike, and there’s nothing like being around nature. I hope you have a great time together. 😉 Maybe one of these days my son will want to go hike too, it was him that wanted to go with me to Fatima, i was planning to go alone because i had made a promise and i don’t usually drag others along to pay my dues… LOL!
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