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(Late) August P&T mailbag: Best of the worst years, all-time Knicks vs. all-time Celtics & Juju Reese – Posting & Toasting
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60 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.09.03)”
Just read the Wachtell report on the Clippers. Very damning. Most definitely lose if they decide to sue–way too much evidence against them. Also suspect Kawhi wasn’t “punished” at all as the 700k fine probably offsets the amount of improper perks he got from the team outside of the 4 endorsement deals.
And the other 29 teams should be livid at the Clippers’ conduct so I don’t foresee pressure from them to lower the punishment…unless the Clippers are not unique. Interesting to see how this all shakes out.
Worth noting that the Thunder have swap rights on the Clippers pick this year.
I get why they protected OKC, Boston, and Philadelphia, but it seems unfair to the rest of the league. You’re killing the Clippers with one hand and letting other contenders gain from it with the other.
If the Clippers traded an actual pick to those teams, then you’d definitely protect them because that’s a tangible asset.
But it’s just swap rights. They carry inherent risk — you may not be able to use them. IMO if those picks are forfeited then there should be nothing to swap with. And you’re not taking anything away from the other team bc they always knew they might not get anything from it.
If I’m the Clippers and my rebuild just got canceled by these penalties, I’d keep Kawhi. Make him stay and make the team competitive. Why suck and let other teams benefit?
Because you are now DESPERATE for draft picks. And the ones they get in this trade would not be impacted by the death penalty Silver just put on them. They’re infinitely more valuable than having an aging, injury-prone, no longer mentally-present Kawhi on your roster. He doesn’t want to be there anymore. It would get incredibly ugly, and by the time another trade opportunity presented itself, the return would probably be much lower.
“If I’m the Clippers and my rebuild just got canceled by these penalties, I’d keep Kawhi. Make him stay and make the team competitive. Why suck and let other teams benefit?”
Again, I highly, highly doubt that the Clippers get to make the decision to keep Kawhi. They made the trade!!! If anyone could rescind the trade, I’d imagine it would have to be Toronto. But why would they? Nothing changed on their end.
You make a compelling argument, Alan. And you’re undoubtedly correct.
Mine is basically “if I’m going to hell, I’m taking you with me”, which is compelling in its own right, but foolish.
I still think Silver made a mistake protecting these three teams, though. Without the punishment, the Clippers would have been in a good to acquire star players, which might have made those swaps worthless.
The punishment is what makes those swaps so valuable.
The trade was never consummated.
Got it. I was definitely not aware of that. Thanks, Hubert!
So question. These picks that the Clippers are forfeiting, do they just go away? Like the first round will just have one less pick in it?
The whole thing seems so foolish by The Clippers. Like you couldn’t get Kawhi to just do a few media appearances or whatever so the pay was legitimate? More than anything it’s just lazy and dumb.
Yes. This includes the remaining Pacers pick from the Zubac trade. Which makes the Clips even luckier that the lottery swung the way it did this year. Otherwise, they probably would have lost both picks, and have given Zubac away for nothing.
Currently trying to talk my Clippers fan friend into becoming a Knicks fan instead. Feels like this is an extraordinary circumstance that would absolve him of accusations of bandwagon-jumping.
Just to elaborate, next summer the Clippers will have Garland, Ingram, Wagner, and just 4 other players on the roster.
They could have approximately $75M in cap space, with Ingram on a $42M expiring deal that could have been moved. And they would have had 10 first round picks in the next 7 years.
That’s almost $120M in flexibility, a mountain of firsts, and one of the most attractive markets for NBA players.
It’s extremely conceivable that the Clippers would be much better in one year than they are today without the punishment.
This is overall a great decision by Silver. As Noble said yesterday, it’s his first uptick in a long time. I just think this one aspect of it was misguided and unfortunately our two top rivals stand to benefit greatly from it.
“The whole thing seems so foolish by The Clippers. Like you couldn’t get Kawhi to just do a few media appearances or whatever so the pay was legitimate? More than anything it’s just lazy and dumb.”
The Wachtell report is interesting because it doesn’t really dwell on Kawhi not doing any work which was pretty central to the Pablo Torre initial piece. It also focuses more on the other 3 deals than the Aspiration deal as there is more evidence that the team was involved in “negotiating” those deals. That’s what the Clippers were punished for.
I didn’t realize the Clips were getting two unprotected 1sts back from Toronto, they should definitely consummate that deal.
I doubt they can move Ingram on that contract unless he really starts balling out, but I would trade any vets you can to get more picks because I don’t know if free agents will be eager to go there for a while.
And for chrissake, move to San Diego.
Love the idea of making one of the Clippers picks a prize in rhe NBA Cup
And honestly, why don’t they just make a sandwich pick a prize anyway. Like the pick that is on the playoff cutoff?
That would be kind of awesome
As the matching salary with picks, they can definitely move him.
If Anthony Edwards wants out, for instance, you trade Ingram, Wagner, and 5 firsts.
Now that will never happen because no one wants to go to the Clippers and they don’t have the picks. But before the punishment, the Clippers would have been the overwhelming favorite for any star that wanted out this summer.
That’s the crux of my argument. The Celtics and Sixers don’t want to lose those swap rights because they’re so valuable. But they’re so valuable because of the punishment. Ergo, the punishment should not have considered the Thunder, Sixers, and Celtics at all.
Silver basically gerrymandered the punishment and now three contenders are likely to have prime lottery picks because of it.
Bottom line is in 2028 the Celtics might end up with the #1 pick in the draft because of this. That’s a mistake.
It doesn’t take away from Silver putting his big boy pants on and doing the right thing here. It’s just an overlooked consequence that could be massive down the road.
I’m just reeling over Alan’s idea that there are Clipper fans…
That’s the crux of my argument.
think you’re martin dresslering your way into sugarplum fairies here. it’s just as likely that the punishment delta sends the clippers into the bottom three in 2028 vs a 4-10 no-punishment baseline and actually reduces the celts chance of getting the #1 pick by 3.2%. the idea that the clippers expected outcome sans punishment in 2027-28 was a top ten spot because they might make a blockbuster trade is, err, fanciful. at best this is modest positive tail-weight on the expected outcome, which is at absolute worst mid-range. the impact is probably very close to net neutral overall, hardly anything to care about. eliminating the celtics right to the pick would have been incredibly unfair.
I’ve met several, Raven! Lots of people in show biz prefer them to the Lakers.
just thinking how steve ballmer got banned from his own building…yeah, that’s gotta hurt…
I think he’ll be OK.
I don’t see it that way.
I’ll concede that the scenarios I’m suggesting are fanciful, but they’re also possible. More importantly, I don’t think the Celtics have any claim to be insulated from the consequences of a Clippers punishment, especially after the league made it abundantly clear to the Raptors that they wouldn’t have been.
Two reasons I don’t find the unfairness argument persuasive:
1. Buyer beware.
The Celtics made this trade two months ago, when everyone already knew that forfeiture of Clippers draft picks was a possible outcome. That was a known risk when Boston acquired the pick. They chose not to wait like Toronto did.
2. Precedent and consistency.
The Grizzlies just got burned by the NBA’s new anti-tanking rules. The pick they acquired in the JJJ trade can no longer land in the top five because Utah has been in the top five the previous two years.
That restriction didn’t exist when Memphis acquired the pick. It’s completely unfair. But the league’s response was, “Bad luck, Ghorman.”
Yet here, Silver structured the Clippers’ punishment so that Boston is completely insulated from the consequences.
Maybe there’s a good reason to distinguish the two situations. But I don’t think “it would be unfair to Boston” is it. If anything, Boston had far more notice of the risk it was taking than Memphis did.
Just speculation, but Silver’s impatience on how long the process took with his wish to conclude it ASAP led to the let-off of Leonard (avoiding a NBAPA entanglement) and not touching the draft swaps (which certainly would have entailed a lot more discussions and delay with the 3 teams affected directly than the other 26 secondarily affected).
“1. Buyer beware.”
Hubie, I like your arguments, only because it hurts the Celtics. But buyer beware should not be a feature of a closed ecosystem like the NBA—a key component of which is that they transact with each other in good faith and the NBA hierarchy is responsible for keeping it that way. Just like they told the Raptors. But they didn’t tell the Celtics.
Who are the worst ever Knicks fans?
I’ll say it’s a two way tie between Michael Rapaport and Steven A Smith
“Who are the worst ever Knicks fans?”
Once again but in a different context, Frederic Weis. Kristaps’ brother comes into play. Kevin Durant certainly. Now that we won, next season as soon as we swoon a bit, lots will expose themselves to add to the list.
I nominate Taylor Swift as worst Knicks fan. Bandwagon category
not so sure about that doogie…easy to imagine someone like steve showing up bobby valentine style…
Taking away picks hurts the fans and the product more than it hurts Ballmer and his conspirators.
They should fine Ballmer a lot of money, force him to sell the team, reduce all revenue the team receives from the tv contract for the next 5 or so years, and ban everyone involved from ever working or being associated with the NBA forever.
Taking away revenue while also forcing Ballmer to sell the team hurts doubly since the team will now be a damaged asset that he is forced to move.
Banning those involved forever will be more likely to make people think twice in the future since the punishment is their own livelihood.
Who are the worst ever Knicks fans?
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sacramento/news/mark-jackson-menendez-brothers-basketball-card/
They didn’t tell the Grizzlies that the prime asset they got back for JJJ was about to get nuked. And they made no concession for them after they nuked it.
And I didn’t think they needed to tell the Raptors, tbh. The general assumption when the trade went through was that the Raptors must have cleared the issue with the league bc otherwise why would you make this trade? That’s why there was so much surprise when it came out that they hadn’t. It was negligent on their part. And I think it was the same for the Celtics.
I’ll throw Bill O’reilly in there.
haven’t been following details of the whole affair too closely…don’t think it really bothers me all that much…
it’s not so much that I think everyone in a competitive environment pushes rules/boundaries…
I think the karma of the situation is punishment enough…i mean – sga for paul george says it all…
ha, loser clippers, although fair point, ballmer did a better job at winning than the previous guy…
seems silver humbled the wealthiest owner/human associated with the association…not sure what kind of existing relationship they may have had previous to this situation…
and, because it’s an association – ballmer doesn’t have a whole lot of recourse…
also, hope kawhi drags whatever bad mojo he’s got around him to the raptors…
I am both honored and insulted at not being on the list.
Woody Allen is a bad person, but a good fan.
I am a good person, but a bad fan.
And feel like I should win that one.
You’re not on the list bc you’re the worst Pacers fan ever.
Telling Steve Ballmer he’s banned from his own arena and his team hurts a lot more than any fine or lost revenue that amounts up to a at least a billion dollars.
If you’re worth $138K. Would you rather sell $2k worth of stock to pay a $1k fine or be banned from your own place where you feel like a king and everyone feeds your ego.
There is no debate that the worst Knicks fan is the guy in charge of the nuclear weapons.
ballmer can still go to games…will probably switch from behind the basket and go courtside just for the spectacular…
Didn’t know. Punishment is way too lenient then.
okay, heard some details about the affair – can’t believe it: lawrence frank took notes of his meeting with ballmer discussing how they would circumvent the cap…
that’s wild…
well director – it’s just semantics: “official” involvement……
it’s amazing how many times I’ve gotten to use this clip…
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_lQCtePLNo/?hl=en
Frank went from Assistmnt coach to GM, didnt he?
“There is no debate that the worst Knicks fan is the guy in charge of the nuclear weapons.”
He’s not a Knicks fan. I’d bet that he couldn’t name our starting lineup.
The pick involved in the Jaylen Brown trade was given up by the Clippers back in 2023 when they traded for James Harden. Once a team sells an unprotected draft pick, it is no longer theirs in any shape, manner, or form. It would not just have been unfair to penalize Boston for acquiring that pick, it would have been incredibly stupid, as it would not harm Steve Ballmer’s Clippers one iota, and would hurt a totally innocent party. I don’t see how this is not blatantly obvious.
“More importantly, I don’t think the Celtics have any claim to be insulated from the consequences of a Clippers punishment, especially after the league made it abundantly clear to the Raptors that they wouldn’t have been.”
The Raptors-Clippers trade, which has still not been finalized and could technically have been recalibrated although it seems that it won’t, involved a pick that the Clippers still owned and controlled while the investigation was ongoing. The Clippers haven’t owned or controlled the pick in the Celtics deal in three years. What are you even talking about?
The clippers didn’t sell their pick. They own it in every shape manner and form, and it violates the CBA for anyone else to own it.
The Celtics bought a call option. They were never guaranteed the right to exercise it. And they can still swap with Philadelphia.
It’s not unfair in the slightest.
If the Celtics owned the actual pick, or if the investigation had been secret, then Milo would be correct about the unfairness. But they don’t, and it was public information.
Think of it like this…
If you put money in FTX before Sam Friedman came under investigation, you’re innocent and deserve restitution.
If you put money in FTX while the jury in Sam Friedman’s trial was deliberating, you’re not innocent. You were making a bet, and you should not be protected from the outcome of the trial.
OKC did the first thing.
Boston did the second thing.
Memphis deserved protection more than Boston. They operated in good faith, and were blindsided by nonpublic information. But the league gave them nothing.
hubert i don’t think any of your arguments are persuasive and one borders on tautological. the celtics made their trade knowing that the clippers cognoscenti were under investigation for being cheating liars and highly cringe dancers. that does not put them on notice that a pick the clippers do not own might be vanquished, something the league has never done. saying they should have expected it because you think it is fair does not equate to they should have expected it because it was a reasonably foreseeable event. very much not. the grizzlies situation was pretty rough and they either would have gotten a minor windfall bc the new lottery odds are favorable to picks like that (bc with no incentive to tank utah ending up, say, 10th is miles better now for memphis than at the time of the trade) or got screwed. i would have grandfathered them. in any case hard cases make bad law.
The clippers didn’t sell their pick. They own it in every shape manner and form, and it violates the CBA for anyone else to own it.
the clippers absolutely did trade their pick and they have no rights to it come hell or high water. it goes to boston or to philly. the clippers get no swap pick in return.
Finally some news: https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/287177/Knicks-Interested-In-John-Konchar-Drew-Eubanks
This guy has made some ridiculously stupid arguments before (lots of ’em!) but this is on his own personal Mt. Flushmore.
Let’s dumb it down:
Question: if the penalty for the Clips was one pick instead of five, and Adam Silver decided that it was the 2028 pick. What would the Clippers have lost?
Answer: Stugats.
“Finally some news:
https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/287177/Knicks-Interested-In-John-Konchar-Drew-Eubanks
New York currently has enough space under the second tax apron to add one more player on a veteran minimum contract, but does not have room to sign two such players under that threshold.”
Guess it would be Eubanks, then.
Yeah, Konchar is not an awful non-rotation emergency player, but we need a C.
Eubanks would normally be a very good 3rd C. The problem is that our second C is not very good.
We could at least slot Eubanks in for defense at the center position? I can’t tell (from the numbers, at least) if he is good at defense, but the article itself calls him (and Konchar) defensive-minded.
Eubanks is basically a replacement-level player and at age 29 has zero upside. If he’s the guy we wind up with, I’d be very disappointed. He is not particularly good at anything,other than being mediocre at everything.
I think the funniest thing about Eubanks is he’s a perfectly cromulent three-point shooter at .367 for his eight-year career. Having taken all of 60 shots from behind the arc over those eight years.
Can we unlock the hidden Brook Lopez trapped in ‘The Shaq of Troutdale’? (I guess he’s from Troutdale..).
The fact that you of all people feel certain about this made me doubt myself, so I read the terms another 20 times until I figured out that you’re right:
In my defense, that’s a bunch of gibberish.
I thought it was protected 1-16 & then became a swap, i.e. contingent ownership side-by-side with ownership of a derivative. But it is in fact full ownership, so the rest of my argument falls apart.
Looking at Eubanks stats per 36 minutes, they are pretty good for a third string center. He doesn’t create much offense, but he can finish and his shooting is ok. He also gets a good number of blocks.
He’s OK, but he’s not quite what we need. We need a young rim protector who is better overall than Drum, and can push Drum to third string. I like Drum and am glad that he is on our team, but if he is our second-string center…….we’ve got problems.
Watched the last quarter of game 5. I forgot how many free throws we missed at the end once we had taken the lead. Even after the Mitch rebound and OG got fouled he only made one of them.
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