News & Blogs
Kristian Winfield: The Knicks might be the second apron’s crown jewel – New York Daily News
Bruce Brown making a strong case to crack Knicks’ roster – SNY
Knicks Pause Contract Talks with KAT, Josh Hart, Deuce McBride to Focus on Prep for NBA Season – BleacherReport
Knicks pausing all contract extension negotiations until ‘later in the season’ – SNY
Knicks’ announcement means bad news for everybody, including New York – Posting & Toasting
Knicks tabling Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart contract talks – ESPN
Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart Share Messages for Knicks After Team Pauses Contract Talks – BleacherReport
Three winners and three losers from Knicks’ first two preseason games – Posting & Toasting
NBA Over/Unders (East) | Could the 76ers, Cavs, Heat or Pacers WIN MORE GAMES than the Knicks? – Knicks Film School
Pod Strickland Episode Patreon Preview 630 feat. Geoffrey Rasmussen: Contract Stalemate – The Strickland
Knicks Preseason: Brunson Looks GREAT + Wiseman Impresses – Knicks Fan TV
YT News
41 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.10.11)”
If you have nothing to do before the Giants and Jets, I ran across this interesting long video analysis of the Knicks from the OG trade thru the championship… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJhmD54gzQ
So Dolan is going to do Dolan things, we all knew that. He’s an “attention craver” and at his age this won’t change. We’ll have to endure another “Dolan run” as we did we the previous ones.
But citing Brian, one thing’s for sure:
«None of this stuff bothers me, because, well, you know, they JUST WON THE NBA TITLE.»
🧡💙
I don’t think we need to overreact to Dolan postponing KAT’s extension talks to 2027. KAT will stay here if the money is right from his POV.
I’m sure that opening kickoff is *exactly* what we wanted the European audience to see.
I’m also not that worried about…yet. Postponing negotiations for a few months gives all sides time to breathe and contemplate.
My thing is I just don’t see how KAT would get that much more than what we’re offering. His current contract was signed before or right at the beginning of this second apron era and I just don’t think teams are willing to pay anyone north of 50 million a year anymore no matter how talented.
Look at Duren. Obviously he is not as good of an offensive player as KAT and he had a bad playoffs. But he’s arguably the second/third best player on a team that just won over 60 games and was the first seed and he’s considerably younger than KAT so there is still upside to his game and he took about what the Knicks are offering KAT. Nuggets have the best player in the world and are having a problem fielding a real contender bc they’ve overpaid Murray.
It’s just reality. It sucks for the players but 200 million for four years is still generational wealth type money and KAT has already made more than that in his career. And I’m sure the Knicks are willing to go above that some but we shouldn’t expect Leon to move that far above that number if he’s serious about keeping this core intact and getting another title or two. And if KAT refuses to take less then Josh, OG, Mikal, and Brunson will refuse to do so too and then this really will be over.
So I think it gets worked out.
Since Tim Connelly left to go to Minnesotta, Denver total talent pool has been on a decline. Murray & Braun are both overpaid by $10m, Johnson overpaid by ~$7m, Gordon over paid by ~$3m. That’s $30m worth of specialized talent that they don’t have to surround Jokiq with.
In the meantime, Presti is paying a total of $28m for Jaren McCain, Cason Wallace, Jaylin Williams, Aday Mara and Ajay Mitchel.
Leon is paying our entire bench, including $3m Dadier mistake, only $26.7m. I happen to believe that this group is desperately missing a $15m front court talent like Mitch or Bobby Portis and this will be evident during the season.
We had one.
The Knicks’ bench is guard-heavy and probably not a finished product. McBride, Alvarado, and Shamet are EXCELLENT bench pieces. Drummond is probably a league average or slightly better backup C. The new and improved defense-oriented Clarkson is a viable bench piece, Diawara is probably playable as a 3-and-D wing, and even Kolek wouldn’t embarrass himself if he got minutes.
Shuffle those around a little, and move one or two of the guards for a front court guy, and problem solved. We have a high quantity of useful bench pieces, but we could use some diversification.
feels like we either bet heavy on mo making a leap…not so much financially, but roster wise…
or, or unless the plan is to play a guard/small forward at the backup four…
who knows, maybe KAT gets 10 minutes or so with andre or another center, to be named later…
front office is truly tbd’ing it right now for the folks who’ll play up front…
Edit: after further thought, KAT will be lucky to average 4 minutes a game at power forward…
The particulars of KAT’s contract are less important to me than the broader proposition this saga illuminates, and it’s one I’m not sure much of the media has caught up to yet.
If the second apron remains a true no go for Dolan, this team is being broken up sooner rather than later. There are just no two ways about it, salaries increase faster than the cap itself as long as players remain good.
Everything about the medium-to-long term plans for the team changes when you view it through the lens of a self-imposed hard cap.
For example, previously I could not have cared less that Mikal might be slightly overpaid based on his average production, because he’s still an essential piece of a great team whose best play is very good. Couldn’t possibly care less about our EPM-per-dollar under those circumstances.
But in second apron as a hard cap land, you do have to think about things like whether Deuce/Shamet/Alvarado et al. do enough Mikal things to make him not worth his salary. This sucks and undoubtedly lowers our ceiling. It’s a small market mentality for one of the most valuable sports franchises on the planet.
But it’s the kind of thing we’re increasingly going to find ourselves pondering if the guy who thought the world needed to hear his thoughts about Trayvon Martin via song doesn’t change his mind.
hey noble, back to director’s question from a while back:
– can you have 3 players on the roster making 90% of the cap (about 148 mil) and still contend for championship?
and in our case it seems we are not really utilizing rookies to back fill…maybe good rookies aren’t that cheap…better to scour the area looking for useful flotsam…
it worked so…
just imagining the first time, next time jimmy d brings “he who shouldn’t even have to be named” to a meeting with leon and friends…
if it hasn’t already happened, that would surely be the moment to inspire them to start packing their bags…
JK – I agree with you for the most part. But I think the lack of balance is more of an issue than you let on.
We have two guards in Kolek and Clarkson that I would feel totally fine giving extended bench minutes to but no one at the 4-5 that I could comfortably see playing more than 20 minutes a game and both of them have question marks even as backups.
I would put Drummond as a below average backup center. Definitely bottom 10 and it’s even worse when you take into account age and injury potential. There is only 2-3 2nd sting centers I wouldn’t immediately switch for Drummond if I could. Plus another 5 or 6 3rd string centers I would take over him.
Add that to how unproven, and shaky since the end of last season, Diawara has been and it seems we are more than a little weak at both the backup 4 and 5. With no current 3rd stringer at either position.
If either Towns or OG goes down for any extended period it will get mighty dicey in our rotation very quickly.
The Athletic:
Karl-Anthony Towns on Knicks not discussing player extensions: “It was news to me”
There is no more big market or small market teams. It all depends of the resources and value system of the owners. Many run deficits to contend and bank on increasing franchise valuations. Some don’t because they have high interest debt to service. I suspect Dolan is loosing his shirt in Vegas with the sphere and needs the cash flow to cover that blunder.
However, it now seems like all the owners have colluded not to go over SA and we defecto have a hard cap salary system. Evening this playing field has resulted in 9 different champions.
Agree, on Mikal. He’s overpaid by ~$8m and should be making Alex Caruso money @ ~$25m.
Yeah, we coud have kept him if KAT was making what he’s actually worth ~$42m this year instead of ~ $57m. There is your opportunity cost of overpaying players.
the sphere is doing much better these days in its operating costs…they’re down to only losing about 268 million a year…
wait til they start franchising though…then the whole venture can lose even way more money…
it may have been a bad business idea to begin with…
We have till the deadline for Mo to figure it out. Otherwise, we’re almost certain to make a move. But that might be a very situational player a la Sochan, instead of a real answer like Alvarado. Someone not part of the regular rotation but has a niche use in certain matchups.
Realistically, we’re going to play small with Hart as a backup 4. Maybe Mikal when the opposing 4 is more of a wing. Part of why I wanted Konchar who could give us a smallball lineup that can play bigger.
just spent way too much time reading about how exactly money from the knicks be transferred to the sphere…
that’s some mind bending stuff right there…
why can’t we all just have nice things…all = knicks fans 😊
I think there’s now a 40% chance this season is the last dance for this team.
There’s also like an 8% chance of the apocalypse: Dolan gets mad about something KAT says during the season, forces Leon to trade KAT for 20 cents on the dollar, Leon walks away instead, and some MSG crony comes in to carry out the order.
To be fair I think it’s more likely we win the championship than that happens, but the razor is back, and Dolan’s putting all sorts of terrible scenarios in play.
We still have the nicest thing ever! Dolan’s just pissing on it.
aka Isiah Thomas.
It does not seem like that to me.
There’s going to be 1-2 teams over the second apron every year. There always has been, there always will be.
The only reason we don’t have one now* is because the 1 team that’s supposed to be over it is run by Dolan.
* Denver is actually over the second apron, so we do have one
I’m a little confused by this sentiment, and I’ve seen it a lot.
From my POV, all it comes down to is the fact that justifying going over the second apron requires a pretty specific set of circumstances that few teams meet in any given season.
For it to make sense, you basically need all of the following to apply:
1) you’re clearly a contender
2) the age of your core players necessitates urgency
3) going over the second apron allows you to keep difference making talent
A handful of teams we’ve discussed ad nauseam have in fact gone into it, and they all more or less fit the criteria, albeit sometimes indexing more heavily on one of the factors than others.
The modal second apron team would be something like this: a defending champion whose best player is a small guard that just turned 30, and who can retain a key contributor in free agency by going over it. Hmm.
The literal cap is almost an anachronism at this point, very few teams wield much cap space these days (there are of course exceptions). Most major player movement happens via trade/sign-and-trade.
So I think the answer to the question is, sure, it’s fine to go through most of the cap on three players as long as those players justify it. Of course this requires being very efficient in how you use your exceptions, draft picks, and navigate the trade market, but there’s nothing inherently untenable about building a roster this way.
OMG how does the Washington coach not get fired immediately?
I’m half-watching the Giants on an airplane and my GOD American football is so fucking stupid.
How did both teams NOT win that game? Everyone is fired!!
The way Leon built the team, it was always going to be a short window in which to contend. Obviously we won a title, so it worked out and was all worth it! But these guys are all hitting their thirties, and we don’t have any rookie contract players who look like they might develop into something. Punting on the draft and focusing on win-now talent got us that title, but it’s also going to mean that window is going to shut sooner.
We have a decent chance to repeat this season. Would have had a better chance if we went over the apron and brought Mitch back. But we still have a decent chance. After this season it’s gonna get dodgy. It was always gonna get dodgy.
I’ve expressed my preference here many times that I’d have rather gone with a youth-oriented rebuild. Now, obviously, I wouldn’t trade that championship for any amount of picks or high upside players. I’m thrilled with how this has all turned out, and I have nothing but praise for how Leon was able to pull this off. But the bill is gonna be due relatively soon. Four of the five starters will be in their age 30 season or above, and all five are expensive in a league with draconian salary cap rules. We should all enjoy this while it lasts.
Yeah… I’d much rather watch a 0-0 contest decided by penalty kicks 🙂
The Giants didn’t win because of physical errors (Skattebo fumbling and the kicker missing a 37 yarder), but what the Washington QB and coach did on the last play of the game not getting a FG attempt off was moronic to the nth degree.
Oh, I wasn’t saying that Non-American Football is necessarily better… though I’m partial to Aussie Rules, if we’re only talking about the genre of “Footballs.” If you guys don’t know about Wharfie Time and what went down in this year’s Grand Final… I recommend you have a look.
3-1-1 ain’t bad in the grand scheme of things. Winston has been decent and it seems like the division might be trash? Being well-coached seems to have its advantages.
I used to go nuts watching those games after smoking some hash when the goal umpire (or whatever they are called) dressed in white coats with white hats would give the “thumbs up” sign when a guy made a kick. That gesture made me laugh like hell.
I think the only game crazier to watch was the All Ireland Hurling championships. Nothing like watching a couple of dozen drunken Irishmen swinging big sticks trying to whack a golf ball sized ball to kingdom come!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeV_OzWRYsG/?rpxt=MWU0MDlvOXN3NW11NQ==
I’m not all that concerned about the “window” of this team. I went into last season thinking that it was kinda “now or never” and leaning towards “never.” But it definitely felt more like a 1-year window to me than a 4-5 year window, at least unless they made a big swing for someone like Giannis or got very lucky.
Now, looking back, I still understand why I felt that way. I do think that we were a bit lucky with our opponents, and as well as we played, even with the winning streak and the crazy point differentials, I never felt like I was watching a “great” team as much as a very, very good team that played great basketball against flawed opponents with lousy coaches. In other words, not like a team that I expected to be together indefinitely.
In that sense, I think I can live with whatever outcome ensues. We are surely going to see the same essential team this coming season and while I will miss Mitch, I don’t see things feeling all that much different than last year’s team.
After that, sounds like bigger moves are more likely, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both of Josh or Mikal is gone and the team moves on from the ‘Nova Knicks era. I appreciate KAT tremendously and would love to see him stay but If he decides to move on, or Dolan’s edict and ego make the decision for him, it would suck but hopefully there will be a silver lining. No matter what happens, I think there will be opportunities to stay highly competitive during the remaining years of Brunson’s prime, which I’m thinking will last at least another 5 years.
It certainly helps that everyone saw how cool it is to be a New York Knick right now, so maybe that makes replacing players a bit easier.
Zman, ultimately, I agree with you and it’s nice that we have this year at least to run it back and try to repeat. Honestly if that happened Leon could blow it up next year and I’d be totally fine with that decision (ok I’m lying. I’d want us to go for the three peat).
My big caveat is if the team is broken up because of Dolan/Isiah starting to meddle (beyond just a no second apron edict), then I will be much more worried and may, in fact, just peace out as a Knicks fan.
But if we move on from KAT, Josh, and/or Mikal and it’s done deliberately with Leon’s guidance, I can get behind that. I think there’s maybe an argument to be made to retool around Brunson and OG and move to a post championship era where we’re a solid second round team for a few years and avoid a golden state style fall off the cliff. Reacquiring younger/cheaper talent around those two might eventually make sense.
Regardless, we got this team now and we’re the defending champs with a real shot at repeating. These are truly first world problems.
I essentially agree, swifty. I just think that it’s too soon after the championship for me to care all that much about things that haven’t happened. I get that losing Mitch actually has happened, but Dolan’s decree is a done deal, so I’ve moved on to being interested to see what Leon does under the given set of constraints. Letting Mitch walk, signing Drummond, and locking up Shamet and Alvarado seemed like the best moves that could be made under the circumstances thus far. Now it’s all about how the KAT drama turns out, but we’ll probably have a bunch of regular season games under our belts before there is any movement there.
okay, those words together caught me a little by surprise…
saw something today which mentioned cannabis (thc) helping old folks’ brain health…
glad to know i was way ahead of the curve on that bit of medical science…
and remember bob – don’t bogart that joint my friend, pass it over to me…
well, a tie is better than a loss…
after so much futility over the last decade (and more), this season just feels like “gravy”…all to the plus…
real show today is this 49’r/seahawk game…
let’s go brewers…
wasn’t really that attached to the yanks this season, finding it pretty easy to move past their season…
Fuck you, geo.
Actually you were right, the 49ers-Seahawks was a real show, with amazing plays equalized by bone-headed failures. That last Seahawks play to JUST not get the first down was emblematic.
well deserved i’m sure…rambling pretty good today – which part?
😜
wait a minute, I get it…did you go native out there in the great northwest…
Inlaws, geo. Gotta play the game. Since I despise the NFL, it doesn’t really matter who I pay attention to…
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