(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 8:07:40 PM)
The Knicks have signed Phillip Carr, according to the team’s Twitter feed. Ian Begley of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link) that the contract is likely an Exhibit 10 deal. Contracts with the Exhibit 10 clause are worth the league’s minimum salary and don’t come with any compensation protection. They can include a bonus in the $5K […]
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 4:00:04 PM)
Having opened up a roster spot by waiving Tyrius Walker earlier today, the Knicks will sign John Jenkins to re-fill their 20-man preseason roster, reports Marc Berman of The New York Post (Twitter links). According to Berman, Jenkins – who caught the Knicks’ eye during his Summer League stint with the Trail Blazers – will […]
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 10:21:11 AM)
The Knicks have released a training camp invitee from their 20-man preseason roster, announcing today (via Twitter) that they’ve waived rookie guard Tyrius Walker. New York had signed the former Morehouse standout to a camp deal last month. Walker averaged 22.8 PPG in his final college season, buoyed by a .475/.357/.802 shooting line. Because he […]
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 12:30:00 PM)
David Fizdale spent his time off last season essentially backpacking the NBA, soaking up tips while attending practices and examining the successful teams.
His most notable and publicized stop on the tour was at Golden State, where, among other things, Fizdale picked up a greater understanding…
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 12:30:00 PM)
David Fizdale spent his time off last season essentially backpacking the NBA, soaking up tips while attending practices and examining the successful teams.
His most notable and publicized stop on the tour was at Golden State, where, among other things, Fizdale picked up a greater understanding…
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 4:27:17 PM)
Washington Wizards forward Markieff Morris had plenty to say before and after his preseason debut. Everything about the Washington Wizards in Monday’s preseason 124-121 overtime loss to the New York Knicks felt ill-prepared for the 2018-19 campaign, except for Markieff Morris’ distaste for officials. In a game highlighted by 83 personal fouls and 90 free throws between the two teams, Morris rose to the top, earning two of the game’s five technical fouls over a span of eight seconds late in the second quarter and receiving the rare preseason ejection for barking in Knicks rookie Mitchell Robinson’s ear.
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 5:01:23 PM)
The Knicks reportedly signed former Hawks and Suns F John Jenkins
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 12:32:42 PM)
It was a short stint for G Tyrius Walker in blue and orange, as the Knicks cut him just a week after signing him to their squad.
[NYTimes] W.N.B.A. President Lisa Borders Steps Down for Time’s Up (Tuesday, October 02, 2018 11:50:48 PM)
During three seasons, Borders has overseen a surge in attendance and TV ratings, and the league’s shift to having a stronger imprint in liberal social causes.
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 3:33:22 PM)
Mario Hezonja was ticked at himself — not coach David Fizdale for not starting him in Monday’s preseason opener. The Croatian combo forward wears his emotions on his sleeve. Though his Knicks preseason debut was decent enough, coming off the bench for Lance Thomas at power forward, the 2018 free-agent signee said he was “pissed…
(Tuesday, October 02, 2018 10:24:04 AM)
The Knicks went 3-for-3 in Washington, D.C. during their preseason opener. Not from the field – but with their rookie showings. And isn’t that what Scott Perry’s 2018-19 vision is mostly about, after running his first draft as chief operator? Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier all excelled in different ways. Knox, their lottery…
88 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.10.03)”
The best approach to Trier might be for Fiz to evaluate his game and personality over the next couple of months. If coach in January believes he could be a useful instant offense guy off the bench in the future, we still have the BAE available and could offer him up to about 3.5m/year. Remember the BAE will not be available next year to us so it’s a use it or lose it situation. I doubt Trier would take 800K min? especially this summer given all the cap teams will have. We cut Mudiay (or Hezonja) to free up the roster spot.
I’d be reluctant to part with Dot or Ron; we should use the entire year to evaluate them (Kornet also). We have the option to sign Ron with the room exception if he shows anything. Dot’s on a favorable contract and he might thrive in a role where he’s not required to create offense (e.g., next to Kyrie and KP). There’s also the nuclear option if two of Butler/Kyrie Kawhi/KD are ready to join the NYK next summer. We offer some cap rich team THJ/Courtney/2019 pick/Dot to free up the cap space.
Doubt it
I agreed with this last season.
Today, though, we have Mitchell Robinson and two second round picks from one of the league’s worst teams. It’s hard to argue we’re not better off in the big picture.
We obviously could have handled it better last year, but seeing how poorly valued Mitchell and Williams were at the draft and how little KOQ got, it’s clear that decent bigs just aren’t valued around the league right now. We actually might have gotten good value for Willy.
@1
I think he would 100% take the minimum, simply because if he doesn’t and he keeps the two-way contract as it is, he becomes a RFA and the Knicks have the right to match any offer, and the QO is for another two-way… so refusing any standard contract offer is a stupid idea if you’re a two-way player.
You could be right, and certainly the experts are on your side, but lets see how the rest of the pre-season goes. I recall reading about a study that found that even though actual pre-season results are supposed to be meaningless, there actually is a correlation between pre-season records and regular season results.
And anyway, Dolan’s razor.
Enes Kanter is probably the best overall player on our roster so I can’t say I’m worried yet
If Trier is playing well, the Knicks could play hardball and make him a QO for another 2-way deal. There are some potential negatives to such a strategy:
> He would be on a 2-way deal next season so his availability to team would be limited.
> A team wants to build goodwill and Trier might not appreciate Knicks paying him much less than he’s worth. He might even choose to force the issue and sit out in which case NYK would not be able to sign another 2-way player until they withdraw the QO which would then enable Trier to play for another team.
> Knicks would have to make a QO for a regular contract in summer of 2020. If he’s playing well, they may end up having to pay him much more than had they signed him this season.
I think it would be in the team’s interest if they believe he’s a keeper to offer him a deal typical of a 2nd round draft pick (first 2 years @ about 1.5m to 2m/yr guaranteed and team options on years 3 and 4). The key is to do this before the BAE expires so they could use the free cap and room exception on other players this summer.
@7
Oh, I agree that if he continues showing promise this is the best course to take. My point is more that I think Trier would take any contract to be out of the two-way deal, as those are cool and fine for the team but are actually very terrible for the player, if he has any real NBA aspirations.
If he’s worth more than the minimum than try to sign him to a 2 or 3 year deal at this amount is the best possible idea. I’m just not sure yet he’s ready for the NBA.
Naturally, I’d want to see some more pre season games before having to decide, but I would already rather have Trier on the team than Kornet. Trier has some real talent and could become a very good player. Kornet’s best case is a decent backup, but he’ll probably be out of the NBA relatively soon. And from what I gather, Kornet is supposed to be a really smart guy. I give a lot of weight to basketball IQ as part of development. I would still rather have Trier.
I cringe whenever I think about Hernangomez.
That’s modern basketball. He doesn’t stretch the floor and he doesn’t defend well inside or on the perimeter. He just does almost everything else well and was really cheap. ughh
Miles Bridges had another good game last night.
Malik Monk with 7 assists in 22 minutes.
Melo 13 points on 8 shots. 3/6 from 3 in 23 minutes.
My issue with Kornet is just that he seems to have such a low ceiling. Like, what’s the best case scenario for Kornet’s development? I would guess kinda like a Novak who rebounds a bit and can block a shot here and there? A Mehmet Okur type of guy? I don’t see the point, honestly.
I’ve been assuming that Kornet’s deal exists because he’s tall and hangs out on the perimeter on offense, giving the rest of the team someone to play around that vaguely fits into a KP-shaped hole. Presumably this way it’ll be less hard to integrate KP with the new guys when he comes back. Basically a stand-in so they can get the lighting and focus right.
On the other hand they gave Hicks a two-way so that’s probably just wishful thinking.
But we do have intriguing players under contract. It’s fine if they aren’t all perfect.
p r e s e a s o n
I have no problem thinking we are going to play hard, and we might surprise some teams, especially on back ends of back to back games. But, I can’t think of a team in the east outside of Orlando and Brooklyn that should lose a game that they are prepared for against us before KP comes back.
I mean, right now, we have Kanter and Mitch at the 5, and that’s it. Kanter can’t play D. If you give Mitch minutes, he’s going to get into foul trouble. Then what? Kornett would have to be a rich man’s Jason Smith and hit 5 3’s to be of value.
Same thing at the point. We have a 6′ 1″ Burke running the show. Look at the PGs in the east….Kyrie, Simmons, Walker,Lowry, Dragic; they can eat that up. So we put in Frank for D, and now we have 4 guys on O.
The future is the future. it is not now. Now is hard to watch.
If we go 5-0 the discussion might turn to optimal playoff position
Oh, let us have our fun, Jowles. Opportunities for it are so rare when we root for this cursed team.
To restate, this is looking better in hindsight. I know Willy was productive, efficient, and cheap. But like you said, he’s good at the things teams don’t value much any more. And frankly, we don’t really need good players this season. I thought we ran his value into the ground by not playing him last season, but in retrospect I can’t see anyone giving us a first round pick for him in the current environment, even if he had been playing.
If he were still on the team, he’d be behind Kanter and we’d want him behind Robinson.
Here’s what we really gave up: one year of him being cheap and productive in a season we’re trying to win (2019-20) before we have to pay him. For that, we got two second round picks in 2020 and 2021.
I hated the trade at the time. And we shouldn’t let the fact that we lucked into a better prospect change the way we view a flawed process that led to dumping him in the first place. But we lucked out. Robinson is a better prospect that Willy, and we got two good second round picks, which is very important considering Phil gave literally all of ours to Philadelphia.
This isn’t a kick in the balls anymore, it’s an “all’s well that ends well”.
Just don’t tell me that this team might not accidental tank, or that Carmelo Anthony is suddenly receiving bounce passes to the numbers so he’s going to start shooting .600 eFG% because of his new jersey.
Be optimistic and all, but this team is going to get totally fucking dominated by real NBA teams. Carmelo is going to be a replacement-level player. And that’s okay. Accept it.
I hate to say you’re right, Hubert, because that was a dumb trade I still get irritated thinking about… but you’re right. It is just luck that Robinson was there and we got him, but it does render the stupid Willy trade moot.
Yeah, the process on Willy was bad, but the outcome was mostly pretty good. After the Melo trade, I assumed his presence made Kanter redundant. Turned out to be the other way around, at least during this weird tanking period.
Also, what’s with this story about end-of-season awards?
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24881774/lebron-james-los-angeles-lakers-picked-gms-preseason-mvp-favorite
I can see LeBron getting a participation trophy from the media, but Durant at #2 with 27% of the vote? There is no shot in hell that Kevin Durant gets anywhere close to the MVP award. He could play all 82 and score 35 a game on high efficiency and the narrative would be overwhelmingly against him because of how deep and good his team is.
@2 We’ve been disappointed before, why not again this year?
Because drafting 8th is always so much better and more interesting than drafting 3rd.
Maybe you missed it but Melo apologized to the bench after a long two so I think its safe to say he’s going to eliminate those from his repertoire. That and those bounce passes should have him right back at the all-star game where he knows he belongs.
Assuming Kanter leaves next year, we are going to need another C. A cheaper and potentially better all around version of him in Hernangomez would have been fine by me even if we eventually had to pay fair price.
It’s preseason.
You can’t put too much weight on individual stats because there’s too much noise, but you can look at skills via observation. I don’t need a year of stats to already know Alonzo Tier has an excellent handle and can create his own shot against NBA caliber players or that Robinson is such a threat on the lob, defenses are going to have to adjust when he’s on the floor, or that Knox can score fairly well in a variety of ways from a variety of places.
What we don’t know yet is how those skills will translate into production over time as they develop. But showing me they have NBA skills already is way better than showing me they don’t.
@21
And because he simply can’t shut the hell up. Even me, one of the biggest KD defenders, can’t stand it anymore when he talks.
I’m giddy about Robinson because this is the kind of thing that doesn’t happen for the Knicks: there’s a dude that had bizarre circumstances that dropped him from the place you’d expect he would get drafted, but he has all the tools necessary to be just the kind of guy we need for the future. We might have found a DeAndre Jordan in the 2nd round and I still have the old Knicks fan urge to not get too excited because Knicks, but it’s hard not to be.
Well, luckily for us, productive centers are basically a dime a dozen, they’re essentially like middle relievers in baseball. You can get a good one for real cheap.
I must not be paying attention. What is he always talking about?
Huh. I just googled Kevin Durant and got this…
Now I have to google who Chris B Haynes is….
I hear you, but I’d still WAY rather have Willy at around 1.5m a year for this year and next at his age than try to find someone as young and good in free agency and pay him more next year. Things worked out well in that we have Robinson, but it was still a bad move. Noah was almost immediately suspended and they apparently had no intention of bringing back O’Quinn or they would have at that price. They should have just played Willy.
To get Durant (and it’s obviously a longshot), the Knicks will have to look good enough down the stretch with Porzingis that Durant can say to himself, “With the addition of me and some development from KP, Knox, Frank, Robinson etc…), that’s enough for a deep playoff run next year with plenty of upside going out further”.
Which seems strange considering last go round he interviewed in the Hamptons and did not ask the Knicks. I know #phil, but the building is the same so …
Some people are still giving him a hard time for leaving a serious contender in OKC to play with a team that already had a championship under its belt in GS. Even Clyde said he should have an asterisk next to his name. When you combine that with some other things, he more or less hates the press at this point. I can’t hardly blame him for that, but being confrontational and vocal kind of feeds into exactly what he wants to stop.
@27
Mostly the last two news about him saying he wasn’t getting consideration for DPOY because people hated him, and him saying he left for Golden State because he didn’t have anyone on his level in OKC. Even though the second is kinda true because they traded Harden before he blossomed into a MVP player and Westbrook is great but he is better, you know, just shut up. There’s no reason to say stuff like this, even if you believe it. I’ve defended his right to make the best choice for his career and he was proven right winning 2 titles already, but stop trying to “embrace the villain role” because it’s only making him look like a complete fool.
I’m sorry but this is such a tired argument. It’s complete conjecture. It assumes that players don’t have any goals in life beyond winning more once they’ve already won. And it’s been proven wrong by countless free agent defections, most recently LeBron.
What I’m about to say is also conjecture, but I’m very confident that the Knicks’ record after the all star break is going to have absolutely zero bearing on whether or not anyone wants to sign here.
We can sell New York, Madison Square Garden, Kristpas Porzingis, and our young core to anyone, regardless of how we perform in the standings this year. It doesn’t mean they’ll buy it. But this is most compelling case we can put together since we signed Houston and Childs in the summer of 96.
You would not have to be insane to leave Golden State or Boston to come here. You would just have to not be a ring-chaser. Durant and Kyrie already have their rings.
@33 I hear that. He seems bitter. I guess the criticism stung him deeply, which I can understand.
@34
They all have more goals in life than winning. They also all value things differently. Some may value family, weather, lifestyle, money, stability, wining, etc.. in a different order. Winning (or at being highly competitive soon) is part of the decision making process.
Let’s say he likes the weather and lifestyle in CA. Let’s say he could make more money in Sacramento.
Do you think he’d go there to lose in that dysfunctional organization?
I say “no”.
But if they put a 45 win team on the court, why not Sacramento when it checks off most of the other boxes.
1. He can make more off the court money in NY than he can in most other cities.
2. The organization is doing a pretty good job of changing perceptions around the league.
3. If he won here it would change his legacy.
If NY totally sucks this year, no one important is coming here next year unless we overpay or they have some other motive that totally overrides all other considerations. Some people may think that’s a good thing because they want to tank for another 4-5 years. That’s fine, but that’s a different discussion than whether Durant would come to a 20 win team . No one seeks out the losers.
We can suck this year and it won’t matter because we have the potential to add a max free agent, Kristaps Porzingis, a top 4 pick, and another ~$15mm worth of talent to what we’re putting on the court this year. All we need is Knox and Frank to look promising. Those two, Robinson, and Hardaway (and maybe Kanter) are the only significant players likely to be part of whatever team a free agent joins next year.
We’re not dysfunctional anymore. I wouldn’t make this argument if it were 2015. Mills, Perry, and Fizdale are very well respected and they’ve righted the perception ship that previously sank.
The idea of KP might be a stronger magnet to marquee free agents than the actual KP. By that I mean that almost all players who suffer ACL injuries struggle for a few months after they return. Zack LaVine is the latest example of this; he’s just starting to play better after his ACL injury in March 2017. So does KP returning in Feb 2018 and looking bad out there help or hurt? And what if he suffers another injury? It might be best to keep him on ice for the entire year for many reasons and I think KP might go along IF Mills agrees to give him max next summer.
Knicks imo might be attractive to KD if we have enough cap to sign him AND one of Kawhi/Kyrie/Butler. Like I mentioned earlier, we might have a chance to free up about 60-65m cap space if we have a high 2019 pick which could be used to shed THJ/Courtney. I suspect one of Kyrie or Kemba is the front office’s real hope next summer.
There are levels of dysfunctionality tho. Even the Lakers, the franchise everyone always wanted to join, spent 4 years post-Kobe in such a messy situation that no wanted to go there. It took a complete revamping of the front office + adding a lot of young talent to get someone like LeBron to go there.
My feeling is that front offices only matter when they are on the absolute top or absolute bottom ends of the spectrum. Players will be attracted by great situations like Golden State, Boston or Houston and they won’t touch garbage fires likes Orlando, Sacramento, the Isiah Knicks or the Billy King Nets. Everything in between and I’d argue front office and ownership are relatively irrelevant to players making those decisions.
So far, Mills and Perry are probably in the middle of the pack of the spectrum. So I tend to agree with Hubert that there’s no reason for free agents to actively avoid the Knicks, specially since a bad year in terms of record would be a) easily justified by Porzingis’ injury + development of the youngsters b) would add a great prospect through the lottery under team control for 4 years, which is certainly a draw for big time players. If the Lakers didn’t have Ball, Ingram, etc I’m pretty sure LeBron wouldn’t have gone there, either because he wants to play with them or because of their value as assets to bring other stars.
So adding talent is in my opinion much more important than winning 35 games with a mediocre roster, that’s why I don’t think it’s a bad thing if the Knicks tank one more year to add a blue chip prospect.
KD is not coming to the Knicks.
Only in Reub’s world does something like this get serious consideration.
The Knicks just signed John Jenkins. There was a time when he was a guy I thought was getting undervalued but he hasn’t really done anything since then. Still, I’m glad the FO is still looking for young-ish flyers.
Re: Hernangomez, I dunno I would still be pretty happy if we had Robinson and Willy both under contract for the foreseeable future. It’s still very doubtful we get a player of Hernangomez’s caliber with either of the second rounders. It’s not like we got Robinson with one of those picks–they convey in 2020 and 2021. I don’t view it as a huge deal because like JK47 said the market for players like Willy isn’t booming, but one in the hand two in the bush etc.
Is “Mills” the same Mills that threatened a woman to keep her allegations of sexual harassment against Isiah Thomas quiet and ended up costing MSG $8,000,000 in one of the most embarrassing public trials a sports organization has ever been through? Or do we have a new Mills running the show? (Chris Mills?)
Good point, Donnie Walsh. I’m sure that story is on Kyrie’s mind every day.
That I probably agree with.
What I disagree with is the idea that we need to forgo the tank to look good down the stretch to get him to come here. And also the idea that we’re still seen as a dysfunctional circus that someone would have to be insane to join.
If he wants to come here, it’s because he’s angry at the press and wants the challenge of doing it in NY, because of the money situation in Golden State (if he gets paid, he’s basically kicking one of his teammates off that team), and because he believes in Porzingis and our young guys. It won’t matter if we win 10 out of our last 15 games because Timmy and Trey got hot. He’s probably more likely to come if we tank and have the #1 pick than if we played well down the stretch got the 12th pick.
@42
I mean, I didn’t forget about this, I still really dislike Mills. But let’s face it, it’s not like misogyny or sexism is something that really matters for most NBA superstars. The Mavericks have been fostering a toxic masculinity culture for a decade now and they’re still respected as a franchise pretty much all around the league. I mean, just look at how respected Kobe is by his peers, and his case was much worse than Mills’s role in the Sanders harassment case.
I think that we have a chance of landing Durant. The logic is simple. The one thing he doesn’t have is fan admiration. Most fans think he just chased a ring by running off to the best team there is. His rep in OKC is shot and he’s not thought of as much of a difference maker at GS. If he came to the Knicks and they started to win, he would be a god. That’s the selling point.
And if the Knicks can shed 2 bad salaries (Lee & Thomas) they can get both him and a stud PG. So I’m rooting hard for Lee & Thomas to show vast improvement so that we can trade them away.
who the hell is John Jenkins? Is he actually Reub too?
Jenkins is a pretty decent shooter, SG, played with the Hawks and the Suns a bit. It’s probably just an exhibit 10 contract, nothing more, he should be in the G-League.
No player really cares about what Mills was apart of a decade ago. I could see some players being attracted to the first all black Coach/President/GM trio in league history.
Also we have Obamas BIL in the FO so that may end up helping us down the line.
Ray Lewis helped stab two men to death and was named Super Bowl MVP exactly a year later.
In his defense, he said, “God has never made a mistake. That’s just who He is, you see… To the family, if you knew, if you really knew the way God works, He don’t use people who commits anything like that for His glory.”
Upon his retirement twelve years later, he vanished from the spotlight by being hired as a low-level NFL analyst for a small, local network called ESPN.
Same starters as the first game.
Mitchell Robinson!
Ntilikina with the dunk!
Everything else, specially Hezonja: bad as hell
Sigh. Gotta watch the Knicks on tape delay today.
LET’S GO YANKEES!!!!!!!!
Can we just cut Mudiay at half time?
The Mario Mudiay connection has the potential to carry us right to the bottom of the rankings. Everything else is surprisingly nice!
Other than the THj pull ups, those are pretty bad.
Hot take: Knox’s foot speed will prevent him from ever being even an average defender.
Cut Mudiay, sign Trier, end the offseason.
I can’t believe every team in the NBA passed on Allonzo Trier twice. Couldn’t believe it on draft night, and I’m very glad he’s a Knick today. That kid just has it.
Idk, man. Allonzo Trier went undrafted when Buddy Hield went in the top half of the lottery, and they aren’t much different basketball players. The PED stuff must have done some serious damage.
If all starting positions are truly up for grabs might Trier (assuming they waive someone besides Noah) start over Hardaway given how they’ve played thus far?
Trier has been attacking relentlessly, he won’t stop going to the rim. It’s very impressive.
Definitely should sign him to a real contract, but there’s no reason to rush it. We can wait a bit and see if he sustains.
We need to trade Trier immediately. He’s killing the tank. 🙂
I noticed the same thing. Too soon. We’ll see.
If Trier doesn’t make the team, I’m going to assume the deep state is involved.
Mudiay is 0-4 with a bizarre turnover and a rebound.
Trier has 20 points on 6-9 shooting, 2 rebounds and 1 assist, 7 free throws.
It’s an easy choice.
To be fair, Mudiay’s turnover involved Hezonja not cutting as expected. The two are a real force multiplier of suck.
I don’t know how the tank is going to progress if we don’t collapse in the 3rd quarter. Fizdale looks like a damn good coach through 6+ quarters of pre season ball.
20 pts on 9 shots!
I think I’m in love
So Trier gets buckets like he’s James Harden and may/may not be a plus defender?
I don’t think anyone should ever have faith in NBA talent evaluators…ever.
What a job by Perry!
I’d say he probably watched a lot of Dwyane Wade in his prime, more than Harden. That weak side block was positively Wade-ian. Got a bit of that relentless aggression that Wade had in his early years too. Let the preseason hyperbole grow, but I’m quite impressed by the kid.
Trier may or may not have a successful NBA career, but the point I’m really driving at is there is no reason he should have gone undrafted. He’s a plus athlete that had great stats in college and clearly has an NBA skill. For example, Jerome Robinson was a lottery pick in this draft! It just doesn’t make good sense to me.
Been watching Yankees. How’d Knox look tonight? And Mitch?
Mitch looked pretty good. Rolled his ankle though. Anybody have sound on the game, have any news?
Just a sprain, according to Twitter.
Did Frank get much run at PG? Or was he usually on the court with Burke or Mudiay?
@78
Pretty much 100% of the time with either Burke or Mudiay or Trier, who was handling most of the time in the 2nd quarter.
He did have some nice drives, but as usual it was a mixed bag offensively, and a very strong defensive showing.
@77, thanks
Frank had some nice plays here and there. He shows flashes on the offensive end but I still don’t see an NBA point guard. He’s an odd duck of a player.
@81
It’s so weird, if I never watched him play and you told me he has been playing organized basketball for like 4 years only I would believe it. He doesn’t dribble and move on offense like a natural basketball player, his passes and shots seem heavy, not natural, there’s no flow to the motionslike you see from a player like Trier or the typical AAU guard. But then on defense he sometimes makes those crazy instinctive plays where he reads the game perfectly and tips a pass or comes to block a shot at a perfect timing. It’s like watching a guy who played basketball for a decade but only defense or something like that. My faith in his development comes most from the idea that he can channel this understanding of the game he has on defense to his offensive game, or at least become a consistent enough shooter to be valuable on offense, but it’s such a weird case.
Frank Ntilikina is a wing player, and looks like he’ll be a good one eventually.
Ntilikina should be Andre Roberson. There’s nothing wrong with that. He is not an NBA point guard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-FJaICPe20
This is what an NBA point guard looks like — and one who has never made it past the Conference Finals. This is a mother fucking competitive-ass league, and you can’t expect a guy with virtually no court vision or attacking instincts to suddenly become a guy who plays the hardest (by far) offensive position on the floor.
John Wall is a guy with vision and instincts and crazy athleticism, and I’d call him a third-tier PG right now. Ntilikina has very little chance to become a star at the position. But SG/SF? He could very well be an All-Defensive selection and a guy who doesn’t totally ruin you on offense if asked to play a limited role.
Frank Ntilikina can handle, shoot, pass, and take his man off the dribble in a pinch plus he’s a high IQ guy on both ends. I think he’s more of a 2013 Kidd/Prigioni type off guard offensively and a complete gamewrecker on the wing defensively. I say all of that to say that Frank will likely never kill you offensively (even if his efficiency stars are down) because he’ll either make a play with it or move it along. He’s not gonna Dion Waiters you to the bottom.
Huh? We had that for years here in NY: Isiah, Mills, Lenny Wilkens/Herb Williams/etc… It netted us Jerome James and Jared Jeffries.
Mills wasn’t Knick president then. He was MSG president. Different gig. The Knicks did have an all-black Coach/President/GM, but only because Isiah was both GM and President. This is the first time that a team has had a different person in each gig and all three of them were black.
@87 Is Scott Perry really black, though? I mean… he has freckles. Isn’t that an Irish thing?