Categories
Uncategorized

Knicks Morning News (2026.09.30)

News & Blogs

  • All the dumb moments that make this title so much sweeter: Part II (1990-01) – Posting & Toasting
  • LeBron James confirms he nearly joined the Knicks, will live part-time in New York while playing for 76ers – CBS Sports
  • Knicks’ Jalen Brunson to host 52nd season premiere of ‘Saturday Night Live’ – SNY
  • Knicks Mailbag: How can NY address lack of frontcourt depth? – SNY
  • LeBron James says he envisioned joining Knicks as free agent – ESPN
  • Knicks Bulletin: ‘We’re going to hit adversity… and we’re going to embrace it’ – Posting & Toasting
  • Everything Jalen Brunson Said About Knicks’ NBA Title, SNL, Mitchell Robinson Exit, More – BleacherReport

    • YT News

  • NBA Second Apron: Both GOOD & BAD for the Knicks! #sports #podcast #basketball – Knicks Film School
  • Knicks Media Day Reactions: Show Me The Money, Repeat & Bye Bye Mitch – Knicks Fan TV
  • Knicks Media Day: Will Karl-Anthony Towns Take a Discount? | CIsse Watch! – Knick of Time

    • 55 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.09.30)”

    VERY good start to the playoffs for the Yankees. Let’s hope they didn’t just waste all of their offense for the series on that one game.

    I came here to post the article. It’s the best thing I’ve read since the championship.

    Let’s get that extension done, folks.

    Also: fuck Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and their cabal of NBA macho assholes.

    I gotta say that team last night looked more capable of postseason success than any team I’ve seen them throw out since 2017. Credit to Bob, who I recall suggesting this would be the case way back in the spring.

    Maybe New York only sacrificed the Giants & Jets to the sports gods in June.

    John Konchar had been away from the Knicks this week tending to a personal matter, per SNY sources. The Knicks and Konchar have since decided to part ways for now, allowing him additional time away from the team— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) September 30, 2026

    One roster note: Big man Tony Bradley remains on NYK radar as a veteran to add in wake of John Konchar (personal reasons) leaving team— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) September 30, 2026

    Seems like this closes the door on Konchar, which is annoying because it takes a solid option off the board. But his fit was never all that clear outside of him very plausibly being the best overall player of the bunch we brought on (though this University of Miami alumnus might be partial to Bruce Brown).

    Bradley would be a passable 3rd big, but this front office tends to not use roster spots on guys with zero potential to pleasantly surprise.

    Echoing everyone else’s recommendation of Krawczynski’s KAT article. The whole thing is great, but I was particularly moved by two snippets:

    “I think mental fortitude and mental strength doesn’t need to come with a frown on it,” Towns said. “You can still smile and have an amazing amount of mental strength and have that Mamba Mentality.”

    In the moments after the Knicks clinched the title, Towns searched out Ewing for an embrace, centers old and new, a victory for both of them. A few days later, Ewing sent Towns a text message thanking him for sharing that moment.

    “I’m still pinching myself,” the message read. “I really appreciate you searching me out because that made it more special for me.”

    Jordyn watched the interaction while standing next to one of Ewing’s daughters.

    “She was crying, and she told me that this healed something inside of her dad,” she said.

    There are a lot of special things about this team and the personalities on it that made the championship that much sweeter, and KAT being a genuinely great, compelling person is up there with any of them.

    I know one thing for sure–if there’s ever a dispute between Karl-Anthony Towns and James Dolan, picking a side will be the easiest decision I’ve ever made.

    4

    I think mental fortitude and mental strength doesn’t need to come with a frown on it,” Towns said. “You can still smile and have an amazing amount of mental strength and have that Mamba Mentality

    Interestingly they talked about that in the game last night when they were discussing the Sox lefty and his goofiness… I think it was actually Girardi who said something like “everyone’s different, and some people lock in by having fun instead of being intense.”

    I can’t quite believe how good Schlittler and Rice have become. Talk about hitting your 99th percentile projection.

    1

    I remember when Rice was raking in the minors and the consensus was he’d be a Mike Ford esque AAAA type. Here’s Fangraphs’ tl;dr on his as a prospect:

    Rice put up huge numbers in the mid-minors as an old-for-the-level hitter. Realisitcally he’s a power-hitting bench weapon and backup catcher.

    Guess that’s why they play the games. Everyone should’ve known a man with the level of boldness on display here would be relentless.

    Its tough to imagine Lombard also reaching his ceiling like Cam and Rice have but I think he’ll be a very good SS for hopefully the next decade. I’m not anywhere near as bullish on Jones cause he has way too much swing and miss. I still think Dominguez can be a solid MLB hitter but the defense is just disastrous.

    Last night was fun and I’ll be shocked if they don’t finish off Boston but playing Tampa will be a much tougher task especially without a healthy Judge.

    What a waste of digital ink I and many others participated in re: Konchar yesterday. Tony Bradley—OK, I guess. I tend to mix him up with Thomas Bryant. Where is Bryant these days?

    Tony Bradley’s stats surprisingly not as horrible as I thought they’d be.

    N’faly Dante has been waived from his Exhibit 10, lending support to notion his contract was serving the purpose of allowing an Exhibit 9 signing.

    If you are competing for a player you want in G-league, signing him to an exhibit 10 and then waiving means he aiill get a substantial cash bonus. This way they can play in G league and earn $136,000 instead of the standard G league askary of around $40,000. See
    https://www.hoopshype.com/story/sports/nba/rumors/2026/06/30/exhibit-10-bonuses-jumping-to-91000-guys-who-sign/90761009007/

    The Knicks seem to do this for a number of players every year,

    Apparently Jaden Akins was on our summer league team but I don’t remember him at all. Does anyone have any info on him?

    If you are competing for a player you want in G-league, signing him to an exhibit 10 and then waiving means he aiill get a substantial cash bonus. This way they can play in G league and earn $136,000 instead of the standard G league askary of around $40,000. See
    https://www.hoopshype.com/story/sports/nba/rumors/2026/06/30/exhibit-10-bonuses-jumping-to-91000-guys-who-sign/90761009007/

    The Knicks seem to do this for a number of players every year,

    KFNINJ, true enough. The point I’m getting at with Dante is that some Exhibit 10 signees, whom the Knicks know they are going to waive, with no participation in camp, remain on the roster just long enough to serve another purpose: filling out the quota of 14 qualifying contracts that allow Exhibit 9 signings. I believe this accounts for the Liam Robbins’ timeline as well, where his waiver from his Exhibit 10 was delayed about 24 hours for that (apparent, to me) purpose.

    As far as I can tell Akins played off-ball in college and generated little to no draft interest. He can shoot okay & is a good defender.

    He switched to PG in the g-league and played well. Probably needs to make it as a PG or become a much better shooter.

    I remember when Rice was raking in the minors and the consensus was he’d be a Mike Ford esque AAAA type. Here’s Fangraphs’ tl;dr on his as a prospect:

    Anyone who watched him blow through low A, hi A and AA in 23 and didn’t think he was a top hitting prospect while missing 40 games with injury just wasn’t paying attention. He was a far better prospect than Jasson Dominguez. He just doesn’t have a position defensively.

    Is 20 hr, 68 rbi, .324ba, 1.048 ops in 275 abs good?

    If you are looking for a nuclear prospect in the yankee organization they have a CF named Yostin Pena who is an 18 yr old 6′ 4″ kid in both the DSL and low A Tampa combined for 14 hr, 80 rbi, .354 ba, 1.039 ops in 240 abs. He also swiped 37 bases in 61 games.

    Akins got the last 2-way spot. Guess they liked him more than Robbins, who would’ve filled a need.

    We can waive Akins without any salary cap repercussions. It’s not necessarily a longterm commitment. Still… signals we’re using the 14th spot on a center.

    The best thing about last night was that both Rice and Schlittler are from Mass. which must drive Bill Simmons nutz.

    Schlittler is a fascinating pitcher because he has an arsenal that is sui generis: he throws fastballs 90% of the time, but throws three different fastballs: a hard four seamer that is his max velocity 98 MPH heat, a cutter which moves glove side at about 95, and a hard sinker which moves arm side at a nasty 97. He mixes in a curve almost entirely as a pitch to break rhythm.

    The only MLB starters who seem similar to Schlittler are his teammate Gerrit Cole, who has a similar array of fastballs, and Jacob Misorowski, who has a similar throw-everything-hard approach. But those two throw their conventional breaking pitches more than Schlittler.

    Another way to think of Schlittler is that he’s basically a SP version of Mariano Rivera. The hitters know it’s a fastball coming the vast majority of the time, they just can’t hit it. There is just enough late movement on those pitches to get tons of swing and miss.

    The KAT article is wonderful and powerful. He is such a good interview. Whether it is about b-ball or life. I loved this part with Ewing.

    “I’m still pinching myself,” the message read. “I really appreciate you searching me out because that made it more special for me.”

    The only thing I wish Jon K had asked KAT was about the Mike Brown thing. My hope is that Katz’s book offers more insight into what was going wrong at the start, and when/how it got repaired.

    Loved the Jon K article as much as anyone else here, and my sport hatred of Dolan is nestled somewhere in my top three of the Celtics and Red Sox, but…
    Really questioning the timing. Interview took place a couple of months ago. Anytime during the summer it would be relevant. But released 2 days after the leak that contract negotiations are not settled? Does the Athletic mothball articles until someone influential tells them to publish?

    Bernie, it’s more like what happened with the GQ article with Jalen, Hart, Mikal, and DDV: you do it early because that’s when people are available (and also in some cases because magazines have long lead times), and then you prepare to publish it when it’s going to feel most newsworthy. i.e., you do it to help tease the next Knicks season. I’m sure it was always planned for the start of training camp, regardless of the contract question. Sometimes, events overtake your publishing schedule.

    Thanks Alan. Was hoping you would respond as someone whose career is meshed in this. Nice to get an inside take that sports journalism is still to be trusted.

    So it sounds like the Knicks want something around $200 mil over 4 years for KAT. Towns is prepared to sign for less than his max, but the two sides are “significantly apart on value,” according to Jake Fischer.

    So they will probably have to settle somewhere between $200 and $260 to make it work. Bye bye, Deuce.

    I’m deeply skeptical whenever a national media guy other than Shams writes anything about the inner workings of the Knicks FO. None of them are especially plugged in here. Begley’s the only guy I feel 90 percent confident in regarding intel about what Leon and company are doing, and even he gets it wrong sometimes (like regarding the second apron mandate).

    (Shams gets a pass because his whole role is basically as a court stenographer. He doesn’t publish something unless he knows it’s happening, and gets that info ahead of everyone else as part of an elaborate series of favor-trading.)

    Bye bye, Deuce

    The more I listen to people talk about this, the more I think Deuce isn’t even a consideration. Zach Lowe, for example, suggested they’re trying to save money on KAT not to pay Deuce but so they can afford to give Hart $25M.

    The funny thing is KAT and the Knicks may be $60M apart but it still feels like it will get done. Meanwhile Duren and the Pistons don’t even seem to be apart, he just doesn’t want their money.

    1

    @MikeVorkunov
    MSG Sports will spin off the New York Knicks and Rangers into separate publicly traded companies, after its board approved the move. Transaction will be completed on Oct. 26.

    MSG Sports will be MSG Knickerbockers Corp. It’ll own the Knicks and Westchester Knicks.

    MSG Rangers Corp. will be comprised of the Rangers, MSG training facility and Hartford Wolf Pack.

    The transaction will be final after league approvals and other conditions.

    1

    i forgot the rationale for the two public co’s….but who in the heck would want stock in the Rangers right now?

    i forgot the rationale for the two public co’s….but who in the heck would want stock in the Rangers right now?

    Because they make lots of money?

    The building has been sold out for >50 years and they operate in an environment with a fixed hard cap.

    It is a pretty good business model.

    I’m a little bummed we won’t get to see Konchar fight for a spot, but again, it’s only for a spare part and we have a 3rd C issue. Glad that they brought Tony Bradley in, now you have three very different players to evaluate and can pick the one who fits best, at least for now. Hell, maybe dump Dadiet and pick 2. Or make Dadiet sink or swim in the situational “small PF” role.

    EB and Z-man,

    That is interesting about Akins. The draft article gave me an idea of where he would fit on the team, but as usual, or at least as with many draft articles, it made him sound so good even though no team actually thought him worth drafting.

    Timo, you could be right about the delay factor affecting the timing of exhibit 10 signings.

    Because they make lots of money?

    I was being or trying to be funny..given they suck…but since you said they make lots of money…I was curious how much…just read the S-1…they do make some good coin… 100 million EBITDA/15% margin…take a look at the executive comp footnote…Jimmy D is getting payyyeed.

    I think the two teams are going public so then they can go private and avoid tge new tax law that public companies can’t deduct as expenses the salaries of highly paid employees.

    KFNINJ, the problem with that article is that I believe it was written prior to a very lackluster senior year. It projected him as a first rounder, but he wound up going undrafted, probably because of his shooting. Then he continued to be pretty mediocre in the G-League (.512 TS%). He looked pretty good in summer league, but what happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas.

    I’ll probably go to a couple of games in Westchester this year and will get a better look at him, my buddy has a son-in-law that works for the team and it’s 15 minutes away.

    austin wells showing off his wheels…

    huge deal if he can keep his bat going…he frames a pitch perfectly…

    great compliment to fried schlittler…

    One positive difference I see in the Yankees lineup is the move away from the free swinging sluggers with big strike zones and towards situational hitters with compact swings, i.e. tough outs. I don’t follow baseball all that much but that my superficial impression. And that’s what they were more like back in the 90’s.

    that had to be the least stressful yanks series I’ve ever watched…that was wild…

    ugh, probably just means the tampa series will be brutal…

    Leave a Reply

    This site uses User Verification plugin to reduce spam. See how your comment data is processed.