(Saturday, July 21, 2018 7:45:54 PM)
Knicks PG Trey Burke was the latest NBA player to make a surprise trip to Harlem’s famous Dyckman Park for a pickup game.
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 8:50:00 PM)
PHILADELPHIA — While some parents send their kids off to summer camp to run and play outside, others have plunked down more than $4,000 to send their kids off to play video games.
For two weeks this summer, about three dozen kids from around the country, and even some from as far away as Asia,…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 2:35:00 AM)
LONDON — The British government is facing rising calls to liberalize abortion laws in Northern Ireland.
More than 170 politicians called Sunday for action to be taken. The group included legislators from political parties in Britain, Ireland and Northern Ireland. They sent a letter to the Sunday…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 2:10:00 AM)
A new constitution designed to bring 21st century changes to Cuba is set to legalize private property and gay marriage on the island.
Deputies are currently looking at reforms to the country’s charter documents, which currently stem from Soviet-era 1976, as part of an effort proposed by former…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 2:05:00 AM)
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — The top U.S. intelligence official said Saturday he meant no disrespect to President Donald Trump in a televised interview discussing the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said his Thursday comments at the Aspen Security…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 2:00:00 AM)
New York is finally edging closer to legalizing recreational marijuana. Yet while the state Department of Health recently released an analysis showing that the benefits of legalization outweigh the negatives, this will not make policymaking any less complex.
Various taxing, zoning and public safety…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 2:00:00 AM)
On Thursday, the news broke that President Trump has invited Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the White House, proving once more that Trump has an unparalleled ability to surprise. It’s like inviting the man who burglarized your house, just in case he forgot to swipe any of the fine silver.
It…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 1:35:00 AM)
GOLETA, Calif. — A California man suspected in multiple bank robberies throughout the state killed himself just hours after holding up one last bank, authorities said Saturday.
A male suspect flashed a gun and presented a note demanding cash from a teller at a bank in Goleta on Friday, according…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 1:10:00 AM)
It’s going on three decades since April 19, 1989, when 28-year-old Trisha Meili went for a run and became the Central Park jogger, raped and beaten almost to death. Miraculously, she survived and reclaimed her life and her identity.
The release last week of thousands of documents from the police…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 1:05:00 AM)
Pensions for government retirees have been public information in New York since forever, but for nearly a decade, the Empire Center for Public Policy has been trying to collect and publish names and dollar figures on its SeeThroughNY.net website — only to be stymied by the pension funds.
The first…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 1:00:00 AM)
It’s hard to believe nobody thought of it sooner: A New York City library card can now get you into 33 museums free.
The Brooklyn, New York and Queens libraries launched Culture Pass, letting all waltz in once a year to the cultural treasures that make this the greatest city in the world.
That…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 1:00:00 AM)
In January 2013, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg stood in the community room of a Harlem NYCHA development and made a daunting promise to eliminate by year’s end a staggering backlog of 420,000 repair requests from public housing tenants.
And then NYCHA did everything possible to game the numbers,…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 1:00:00 AM)
Progressive candidates in New York have a friend in the city of Philadelphia.
Seventy-six-year-old John Comella, a retired software engineer living on a fixed income in Philadelphia, has sprinkled dozens of small-dollar donations of between $1 and $5 to several Democratic candidates in New York…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 12:50:00 AM)
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota man has been found guilty of illegally possessing a cache of homemade pipe bombs discovered on a family hunting property last year.
Investigators allege 41-year-old Eric James Reinbold also kept a notebook outlining plans for violently overthrowing the government.
The…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 12:25:00 AM)
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A 15-year-old Indonesian who was raped by her brother has been sentenced to six months in prison for abortion.
Singgih Hermawan, deputy chief of Batanghari police in Jambi province, says both the girl and brother were convicted Thursday.
The 18-year-old brother received a two-year…
(Sunday, July 22, 2018 12:00:00 AM)
Putin’s predicted putative puppet
San Francisco: Re “Open Treason” (front page, July 17): During one of the 2016 presidential debates, Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of being Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “puppet.” She said: “You are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 11:55:00 PM)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — An administrative officer with the Federal Aviation Administration has been charged with having child pornography on his work computer.
Prosecutors say 57-year-old Scott Pierson of Vernon was arrested Thursday on federal charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.
…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 11:40:00 PM)
A suspect pursued by police crashed his vehicle into a pole and ran inside a Trader Joe’s in Los Angeles, where he took hostages and hid for about three hours before finally surrendering Saturday afternoon.
One woman was killed in the supermarket, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
“We have…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 11:25:00 PM)
The scandal around the former aide of French President Emmanuel Macron who beat a protester is spreading from the alleged attacker to other members of the administration.
Alexandre Benalla was fired from his job as an aide to Macron’s chief of staff last week after he was identified as the non-police…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 11:00:00 PM)
TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Officials at a south-central Idaho charter school have approved allowing a school employee to carry a concealed firearm on campus.
The Times-News reports that Xavier Charter School’s board of trustees on Thursday unanimously approved the request from the employee.
The charter…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 11:00:00 PM)
One moment he was there, the next he wasn’t.
On Feb. 12, 1993, Denise Bulger, 25, was at the butcher’s store in a shopping center in Bootle, near Liverpool, England. She was waiting to pay for a couple of pork chops.
Her son, James, a month from his third birthday, stood close by her side, holding…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 10:55:00 PM)
A private inspector said Saturday that he warned the company operating duck boats on a Missouri lake about design flaws putting the watercraft at greater risk of sinking, less than a year before the accident that killed 17 people during a sudden storm.
Steve Paul, owner of the Test Drive Technologies…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 10:25:00 PM)
Joe Benigno, originally scheduled to return to WFAN microphone Monday, will now take a leave of absence while station owner Entercom tries resolving the situation he finds himself in.
Does this mean the Gasbag is on thin ice?
Like most things, that will be depend on the money. Always follow it….
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 10:25:00 PM)
So, late Friday night, via his first public comments in a month, Yoenis Cespedes drops a bombshell, telling the world he needs surgery on his heels that will require eight to 10 months of rehab.
And the Mets essentially react the next day by pretending they hadn’t heard of it, at least according…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 10:05:00 PM)
I started the season predicting a Yankees-Cubs World Series, and as the unofficial second half begins this weekend, I still have a decent chance of getting it right, though, in truth, this is already shaping up as one of the most unpredictable postseasons ever.
The National League couldn’t be…
(Saturday, July 21, 2018 10:00:00 PM)
Mayor de Blasio’s effort to bulk up Education Department staff investigating a crush of sexual harassment cases in city schools is lagging amid criticism over the city’s commitment — and transparency — in addressing the issue.
As of April, 133 active cases of sex harassment and discrimination were…
58 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.07.22)”
YOU CAN’T STOP TREY BURKE! YOU CAN ONLY HOPE TO CONTAIN HIM! lolololol
He looks great. Should be the starter imo. That jab step-pull up is deadly.
Until Frank can be as consistently aggressive as he was in that second summer league game, Burke should be our starting PG, without question.
Trey looks like he’s playing at 3/4 speed, def was told not to get hurt. Otherwise looks like cousin drew He’s a street baller. Needs to hit threes and needs to help frank learn to attack
I agree. Burke is good. I don’t think he’s the Trey Burke before the film last season or the Trey Burke after. He’s in between and that’s a slightly above average PG for us at the least. He’s just had a different look in his eyes since the Knicks called him up..and he still has it even in the Dyckman game. I trust Burke with the keys right now, and while part of me really wants Ntilikina to be successful at PG, I’m not sure he shouldn’t be Burke’s backcourt mate moving forward. If there 8s more of a market for THJ, Mills probably should move him- even though we will need his offense this season.
Where are the defensive highlights? Burke is definitely playing at a high level offensively. For balance, I would bring him of the bench to lead the second unit and let Frank play with Timmy, Knox, and Kanter.
I’m Good with bringing him off the bench, my starting 5 is
Frank, Timmy , hez, Knox, Mitchell; With hez and Timmy sharing pg duties with frank.
By default since no kp, make Timmy the first option on offense and let hez and Knox become your stretch wings with Lee as a backup. And if that doesn’t work run offense thru Burke in the second unit with kanter to clean up boards and putbacks.
Trey gives a ton back on defense, but he is likely the best offensive point guard on the team by a country mile.
He’s probably the best offensive player on the team, but he’s best suited for a sixth man role. They can close out games with either
him or Frank depending on need.
I wouldn’t mind Frank starting at the two or the three but I don’t think he’s ready to start at the point unless you loved the Knicks’ summer league offense. It’ll be one or two passes then Timmy, Mario or Knox going one on one.
Well if the goal is to tank, by all means, start Frank at the point! In fact, play him 40 mpg!
But if the goal is to start the best all-around PG and to reward young players who play well, then it isn’t even a conversation. Burke should start until Frank earns it. He’s not Jarrett Jack.
It might seem like a good idea to start Frank at the point until you watch him play for five minutes.
Dribble to the three point line, hand off to nearest guy. Lather rinse repeat.
Hah, why are we talking like you can’t have Burke and Ntilikina co-playing PG on the offensive side of floor? For all the talk about positionless basketball on this site (and I do agree that it’s warranted), why are we talking like Burke and Ntilikina can’t trade ball-handling duties without one of them being on the bench? It’s not like Isaiah Thomas, who *needs* to guard the smallest player on the floor when he’s out there.
Chris Paul didn’t suddenly become a SG when Harden was on the floor.
Ntilikina and Burke should 100% play together and it’s not that big of a question either.
As much as I dont have much hope for development about Burke, he’s young-ish at least and Frank is 19. Who cares if they suck right now, when all the other options also do? Start both plus Hezonja Knox and Kanter, use THJ and Robinson as the first guys off the bench. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure it out.
If the Knicks are making decisions on lineups based on what wins them more games now instead of player development we can really just give up already on this season. It’s too stupid to even conceive.
It’s the one chance we have to truly dedicate an entire season to development with actual promising young players and picks as assets. If they repeat last season with the new Jarrett Jacks and Michael Beasley’s of the world I will be very pissed.
I agree, I like the idea of starting Burke as the PG and Ntilikina as a “second” PG, in fact I think that’s Ntilikina’s ideal role going forward, as a PG/SG hybrid who is usually on the floor with a “real” PG. Ntilikina as starting PG playing 2000+ minutes and Burke coming off the bench is not something I’m as excited about. Hardaway should be the 6th man.
@13 Why would you bring up Harden and Paul (two sure HOFers) in the context of Burke and Frank (a (a journeyman who is a backup at best on most good teams and a barely 20yo who struggles with his handle, driving and shooting?) Positionless basketball is sloppy way to describe what it refers to most of the time. But if your specific point is that it doesn’t have to be either-or, I would counter that Burke and TH2 should surely start over Frank at anything resembling either guard spot based on both merit and commitment to playing young players, and Kanter certainly will start. If you want to argue that Frank should start over Lee, Knox, Dotson, Baker, or Lance (or Robinson and Kornet), those are separate discussions.
Why should Hardaway be 6th man? It’s not gonna happen anyway, but even if the coaching staff was open to it, why would you start Frank over TH2 at this time? Why not wait until Frank becomes a plus NBA player? Why not bring him off the bench in a Marcus Smart role until he improves?
Agree but playing a poor point guard 30 minutes a night retards everybody else’s offensive development. Give Frank 10-15 minutes at lead guard and another 10-15 playing with Burke.
Frank plays defense. That actually counts for something.
Uh, Mudiay? While I’d hope that, if he plays terribly in the preseason, he would NOT get to start, he’s going to be in the mix for starter for quite some time before they admit that the deal for him is a bust.
Fiz may need some time to “fix” him. And, Mudiay is playing for his next contract, so I’d think he would at least try hard to improve, buying himself some time…
@19
Is there any evidence of this? How would Frank playing a lot retard the development of Knox or Robinson or anyone else?
@18
Because he’s 26, bad and more suited to the 6th man role anyway. Frank is 19, bad and we don’t know what his role should be, but playing him a lot might help everyone to figure it out. Because maybe we shouldn’t make decisions based on what wins us 4 more games in a lost season for the first time in franchise history.
We’re stuck with Hardaway, but we simply cannot make roster choices based on featuring him. He’s 26 and has shown no signs to be a core piece ever, we know already what he is. We need to know what we have with Frank and Knox, specially Frank, so decisions can be made. If he sucks and does not develop at all with ample playing time we’ll have to eventually cut the cord. Better to give him the chance now when KP is out and the season is already lost instead of limiting his minutes and role to win 3 more games like we do every damn year.
I know THJ is going to start, I understand it. All I’m saying is that I don’t see him ever developing and would rather take a chance on Burke or Frank showing something with playing time to develop. How are they going to develop if they’re not put in game situations?
How we should divide minutes, starting spots, etc. between Burke and Ntilikina is an interesting debate (I lean towards starting them both and making THJ 6th man but there are perfectly good arguments all around).
Just please, for the love of god, do not factor Emmanuel Mudiay into any kind of decision making process unless the decision is “should we cut Mudiay?” and the answer is “yes.”
Imagine if Fizdale can actually “fix” Mudiay? We should give him a lifetime contract on the spot.
As others have mentioned, there’s no reason to start players based on “merit” beyond effort.
Why would you play Hardaway when it’s clear that he should never receive another contract from the Knicks?
Why would you start Kanter when this team needs losses and player development?
Why would you care about Frank’s production at all during this season, where they’re projected to lose 60+ games?
This all points to a belief in “veteran savvy” and “winning culture” rather than the pragmatic values of losing big and developing youth.
Hardaway should be traded for literally anything expiring or on a rookie contract, and traded yesterday.
All I know is the Rockets are about to crash after losing Ariza and adding Melo (their plan). Ntilikina is pretty bad. Knicks should play their objectively best lineups. Sick of losing. Tanking for 5 more years is not a solution: 6 or 7 lower-than-#5 draft picks rarely yield more than a single good, solid NBA player. Knicks need like 12 of those.
Tim Hardaway Jr. is not bad, and to compare him to Ntilikina’s at this point is ludicrous. He is somewhere between a good and slightly below average 3rd-8th guy in an NBA rotation, depending upon what team he’s on. Of players who played meaningful minutes on a 43-39 ATL team he was 4th in WS48, 5th in VORP, 5th in BPM, 5th in TS% and was probably their best guard. He is also 26 and not too old to develop into a lead role on a young team and was hampered by injury for a lot of last year. He doesn’t deserve $18 million a year, but he’s light years ahead of Ntilikina at this time. He’s pretty much a 26yo version of Courtney Lee.
You could make just as compelling argument for having Frank start the year in the G-League until he plays something like an NBA player (let alone a starter). If he can’t tear it up down there, his prospects in the NBA are pretty dim. Handing him minutes has not made him any better, and if summer league is any indication, his off-season work hasn’t kicked in either.
I guess that I don’t see guys 26 and under as getting in the way of developing young players. you decide to play the worst players on the team the most minutes in an effort to tank as hard as possible. Then it makes sense to bench Hardaway and Burke and play Mudiay and Frank big minutes.
What do you do when you have no real youth to develop? Ntilikina (like Kanter, THJr, Noah, etc) is not the future, you know?
Barring anything unusual I’d like to see Burke, Frank, Kanter, Robinson and Knox play as a unit for 24 mpg Frank and Robinson can cover somewhat for Kanter et. al. on the D and the O-rebounding should be elite and with Frank and Knox hoisting them up there should be plenty of available Kobe assists.
That might be able to cover Kanter a bit on the D and inflate his stats where a playoff team with an injury to a big might take him on for a pick of some sort and an expiring.
And then bring on the elite “No-D” tank squad commanded by General George S Mudiay, TH, Mario, Mr. Vandy and Dotson
@25 No one is trading anything good (including expirings or rookie-level contracts) for Hardaway unless he plays better than he did last year. If you want to trade Hardaway, the most productive way to do so is to play him a lot and hope that he plays close enough to his current contract to entice a team into taking him on for expirings/young guys/picks without adding any sweetener. Same with Kanter, although he’s expiring anyway so it matters less. (although by your long-time go-to metric he’s a near-max player and it would be a bargain to lock him up in a Timmy Jr.-type deal!)
OTOH if they suck so bad that they’re not going to increase their trade value near the deadline, you are probably losing a shitload of games anyway and they are helping the tank.
So ProjectKnicks is looking for a half-assed rebuild full of mid-teens draft picks, and Z-man is arguing for our $71M 26-year-old man to get development minutes over a teenager. Must be a slow day.
(
He’d probably be undervalued if he were a FA now, but I am fully aware that he is not just a minus defender but a horrific, league-worst defender, and that takes away from his value. (Go ahead and try the same argument about Chandler though.)
He’s probably a slightly above-average player, given that he is elite on offense. He’s also a cautionary tale about being unable to coach good defensive instincts into any player. If he could even approach average, he’d be a real
value.
No. I’m living in the real world (the one where Hardaway will start and play big minutes regardless of what you or I think) and the real world in which no one is taking Hardaway’s contract for what you propose unless he plays often and better. I’m not sure what world you’re living in where you think his trade possibilities would be augmented by not playing him.
It really does feel sometimes like a kid hitting his head against the wall and thinking “next time I’ll break it!”
No one is trading anything for Hardaway if he plays or if he sits, he was available to every team last season and nobody wanted him, andthe Knicks still managed to bid against themselves until they reached the brilliant decision of giving him this contract.
The only option for the Knicks this year is to tank this entire year. Stop winning 28 games for gods sake. Who cares if Hardaway is better than Ntilikina? He’s still not good enough to be relevant and Frank might one day be. It’s so incredibly simple.
I really thought Philly’s success would have ended the winning culture and merit arguments forever, but I guess they have to win without getting carried by veteran standouts Ilyasova and Belinelli before it finally happens.
QED
But Jowles, you don’t get it. He’s not a bad defender, just a low-usage, high efficiency defender! He just decides to cherry-pick his defensive opportunities by concentrating only on defensive rebounds, and at that aspect of defense, he’s one of the best in the league! He just leaves the other parts of defense to others who are better at it, and if they don’t do their job well, it’s not his fault.
This is just dumb. Anyone can be traded, it’s just a question of what is the asking price. Are you seriously saying that how a player plays has no bearing on his trade value? And to say no one wanted him is total bullshit, even the Hawks wanted him back, just not at $18 miliion per. (they actually said what they were planning to offer him.)
Even if you have to give up assets or take on something undesirable to trade him, the cost goes down if he plays well. And there is an outside chance that he shoots 40% from 3 and puts up a .600 TS% and actually becomes a reasonable asset for a contender on a 2.5-year $18mill per deal in exchange for an expiring, maybe with a 2nd rounder thrown in. (although if he plays that well, they might just as well keep him.)
Is there a 4 on the roster? Hicks?
Knox and/or Mario will play the 4 a bunch. God help us, Kornet may, too.
@37
Well, after you wrote probably the dumbest post of 2018 in #36, you probably do understand all about dumb arguments!
Now seriously, no, I don’t believe Hardaway is tradeable at all. I mean yeah, if he gets to a .600 ts% then obviously he is, but then he would be a good player and not a bad player, you know? Then we could keep him and start him with no issues.
If all it takes for a player to be tradeable is for the guy to become good when he isn’t, and has shown no signs to be, and is already 26…
Of course he is “tradeable” in the same way that Luol Deng is tradeable, I’m talking about decent trades or something the Knicks could improve from. Saying he’s tradeable if we give up an asset or take something undesirable back is the same to me as untradeable, meaning the team that trades for him would need to be enticed by additional assets, and not because of him.
While you dream of a full-assed run to contender status on Tnilikina’s back…
I’m sure he is a superstar-in-the-making according to some statistical model. So is Kanter, remember?
I have to agree with Z-Man here or maybe it’s a matter of what we want to happen vs. what WILL happen:
I like Frank a lot, but right now, he’s not very good (but decent on defense.) Yes, I know, defense is half the game, but TH2 has a better overall game right now and so does Burke. It doesn’t mean Frank won’t be the best player of them all eventually, but one could make a reasonable assumption that if starters were to be chosen based on past performance that Burke and TH2 will likely start (assuming the team/coach actually wants to compete/win games. Maybe he doesn’t? But I doubt that.)
Maybe Mudiay or Frank will beat those guys out in practice, I don’t know. But as of now, Burke and TH2 deserve to start unless they really can’t/will not play defense and Fiz has to sit them out of desperation.
There should still be plenty of minutes for Frank since he can back up both guard spots – probably at least 25-30 minutes a game. Plus don’t forget, we have Lee (a guy that can hit threes) and Ron (a pretty good defender.)
And I would say all these guys are trade candidates between now and the break. Mudiay and Burke are expiring, and it would be great to unload Lee or TH2’s contracts. Maybe Frank could help land a star in a trade?
I feel like I’m saying a lot of obvious stuff here, but I don’t know why there’s even an argument. Frank really doesn’t deserve to be the starting pg yet. YET.
@42
But that’s not my point. I’m 100% confident in saying Tim Hardaway Jr. is a better player than Frank Ntilikina today. I just think that a team in the condition of the current New York Knicks should not prioritize that, and should instead prioritize the development of the young players on the roster instead of veteran known quantities.
In other words, I’m arguing that the Knicks should not give the most minutes to their best players, simply because those best players are not promising or good enough to achieve anything more than 28 wins and another 5-10 lottery pick.
I think you need to play Hardaway in a new environment at his natural position if only to hopefully raise his trade value (we all want him traded, right??) I think it will be harder to justify playing Lee. If they couldn’t trade him last year…
The only other vet that could have his minutes cut is Kanter. That’s a tough one because he likely would only be traded as a matching contract, not based on his play (if he’s traded at all) and he probably hurts the tank more than anyone on the team. But he’ll likely start and play a lot of minutes. Ideally, Mitchell will play decent minutes and maybe even take over as the season goes on.
Players who might possibly someday be part of a good Knicks team:
Porzingis, Knox, Ntilikina, Robinson, possibly Burke
Players who are probably not going to ever be part of a good Knicks team:
Everybody else
Play the guys in the first group, don’t worry too much about the guys in the second group.
A perfectly logical position.
It’s kind of hard to envision any contending team saying to themselves “You know who would really push us over the top? Tim Hardaway Jr!”
But I dunno. Maybe some dumb pseudo-contending team would trade for him if their starting two guard got hurt or something.
In the short run, this is an incredibly simplistic view. First of all, Porzingis is out for at least the first 3 months of the season, so you’re only talking about 3 guys in a game that requires 5 people on the floor at all times, usually 10 or so to play rotation minutes. Second, none of the three have ever played anything resembling positive NBA minutes. Third, even if you don’t believe that Kanter and TH2 will be part of the team going forward, they might be involved in getting some pieces that will be. They are not anything Deng (who Bruno clumsily brought up as a comparison) because they are still young, viable NBA players, not washed up has beens (if anyone, Noah is analogous to Deng). They absolutely will play and they absolutely can be traded. If we get stuck with Timmy, he’s overpaid but not an albatross (who is 26, not 33 like Courtney Lee) and as I pointed out has been a valuable part of a playoff team. Why should it be assumed that he can’t either be a part of a good Knicks team or a vehicle to get one of those parts if we take steps to maximize his trade value?
Fiz will probably start the best players, then start giving minutes to the young guys as the season spirals downward quickly. That way he has the justification in the locker room that the vets weren’t winning anyway so might as well mix up the lineup.
Nobody has to say that…they just have to say that THjr. is a better option than what we have, and we have an expiring to move, and if the Knicks throw in a heavily protected first rounder and/or a Hezonja or Dotson, we’ll take him.
But it is also likely that the Knicks will keep THjr because they (possibly foolishly) believe that he CAN be a piece of a good team going forward. Bottom line….he’s gonna play a lot and probably start for the foreseeable future.
I think Ntilikina has been perhaps the worst offensive player in the league over the course of his one year. But that’s virtually every rookie, competing for league-worst in something . The bar is so low that people look at Donovan Mitchell as some kind of god for being pretty good in the second half of the season and then being a rotation-worthy player in the playoffs.
The fact is that the Knicks would have been in a better position had they landed in the top 3 of that draft: Fultz, Ball and Tatum all look like potential future studs (Fultz is going to be at least a good, John Wall-type player, which was obvious during his few minutes at the end of the season). It’s just more obvious evidence that the half-assed tank is far less effective than the full-on, stockpile-assets-and-pray method employed by the Sixers and, to a lesser extent, the Lakers.
The team can’t keep picking team-need at #9 and expect to build a contender.
Frank might not be the future PG, or even a viable starter, but burying him behind a should-be career bench scrub? Pure silliness. He should be thrown into the mix and told to fight for his career.
RE who’s playing PF: Mario played something like half his minutes at the 4 last year so it’ll be him, Kornet as a KP stand-in (presumably, nothing else makes sense), Knox occasionally, and probably Robinson occasionally. And Lance. He still exists.
TH2 has a trade kicker, yes? So if he gets traded he’d be pulling down ~19 per. Nobody is trading for him. It could be worse, he’s pretty average. It could be four years 72 mil for an old broken down center who’s unplayable and punched the last coach.
Tim Hardaway Jr will absolutely be playing big minutes on the Knicks this year, and he should be. Frank Ntilikina is a much better defender than just about everybody on the roster, but his offense is far from consistent (unless consistently bad is what we’re looking for) so he’ll be coming off the bench in favor of TH2 and Burke. We will be starting Burke, Hardaway Jr, Hezonja, Knox, and Kanter on opening day because that gives us a penetrating guard, 3 shooters with the ability to create off the dribble, and a dive man who gets a lot of offensive rebounds.
No matter what combination of players we put out there, we’re looking like a 25 win team. This year should be about draft positioning and building trade value so we can make a respectable offer to NOLA when the time comes.
The fact that we’re all still discussing this shows just how much this approach of never tanking really killed the Knicks since the Chandler / Kidd team disintegrated. We are not only stuck overpaying bad veterans but we probably have the least to be hopeful about in terms of young talent of all the crap teams expect what, Memphis and Atlanta, in year 1 of their rebuilds and Brooklyn which shouldn’t really count?
I guess if Porzingis comes back 100% it’s fine, but even the Kings, Magic and the Suns have multiple blue chip prospects to develop and we’re discussing Tim Hardaway Jr.
I just agree with JK47 and THCJ, if something good is going to happen in the next few years it will be a combination of Porzingis, Knox, Ntilikina and Robinson. Focus on them. Everybody else can be waived tomorrow for all I care.
If this team manages to take a half season without KP and still manage to not get a top 5 lottery pick it will be an unmitigated disaster.
I kind of want to go see them play in 02 in January.
Anyone ever go to one of those overseas games?
I think that depends on the situation. If we start to win games on the back of the play of of Knox, Frank, Robinson and Burke without KP, I don’t think that is a total disaster. If we are in the fight for the 8th seed on the back of strong veteran play from Lee, Timmy and Kanter etc, then that probably isn’t ideal. Problem is as we have been discussing for the last 6-12 months is that if we want to get serious, then Lee needs to be traded and Kanter would have ideally opted out and signed elsewhere.
But there are other options, though.
To a large extent, the problem with the Knicks is not a ‘half-assed tank’ as you claim. They have just blundered in every possible way, specially in the contracts department.
I must remind you that the very painful and long Philly experiment is far from over, far from being a clear success. The point is NOT that the Knicks have done better during the same period. They have not. The point is that a full-tank is not the guaranteed success you pretend it to be. Yes, it’s better than stupid management (Knicks) but not necessarily better than intelligent, gradual improvement through the draft and through the negotiating table. Boston is a far better model than Philly (not that the Knicks can do something similar, of course).
“Very painful and long”? The Sixers last made the playoffs in 2012 and just won 53 games and got the #3 seed. The Knicks last made the playoffs in 2013 and won 29 games last year. How could an actual tank possibly not been better than what they already came up with?