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45 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.01.31)”
Good morning, good people of KB! š
One question for today: Let’s say in June the Knicks are hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy, what path are you seeing to get there?
For me, that’s prolly MXP -> JFK nonstop on Emirates š
Keep up the positivity, Cyber!
Full health, Cyber, meaning the return of Mitch ā or a trade bringing in a backup big who can provide similar defense and rebounding āĀ KAT’s thumb being fully healed, and the guys all being reasonably well-rested.
The momentum we’ve witnessed over the past 3 games continues. The parts are gelling and the subs can play more and more minutes because they are being plugged into a machine that’s hitting on all cylinders.
Re: All-Star reserves. If you make several All-Star teams, you’re more likely to keep being named to All-Star Games. Hence Jaylen Brown, Siakam, James Harden over Josh Hart and Norman Powell.
Havenāt finished Macriās pod with Begley yet, but hereās how Macri summarizes the key talking points in todays newsletter:
Always! Watch out, Swifty, i’m coming for your crown! š
A couple more now that I’ve listened further:
* Begley thinks they might include a rookie ā he mentioned Dadiet as a hypothetical, but Begley’s hypotheticals often seem to be the name he’s actually heard ā to grease a deal, as part of the “draft compensation,” since we’re pick-limited.
* As you might imagine from our Council of Rivals front office, there’s some disagreement about whether to even attempt a big move right now, versus waiting until the summer when we can trade more stuff.
If you missed it, McCullar is back. Here’s his scoring plays:
https://x.com/KnicksFanTv/status/1885154205901455597
4-9 for 10pts in 16 min
I like Sims. I hope trading him means he gets a good opportunity. They should get a player or a pick back. A decent second round pick would be fair.
McCullers doesnāt look like a three and D guy in that small video sample since his scores seem to come from driving to the basket.
Given how this FO has operated in the past, it seems unlikely we make a significant move right now in terms of giving away assets for some guy who is barely above replacement level (like Valanciunas) – especially for a guy who makes $10MM and so would require something like a 3-for-1 trade unless you include Mitch (and wow would that be selling at the Marianas trench of Mitch’s trade value). The other thing with Valanciunas is that he has a guaranteed 3 year contract (this is the first year) — is that good $ to have on the books after this year? I suppose it’s good to have tradeable salary but bad tradeable salary is still something that needs draft picks to move.
The James Edwards article suggested they might move Jericho for nothing – ie. give a bad second round pick + Jericho for essentially nothing thereby creating enough move to grab a buyout candidate. I am not sure what actually useful players might be bought out (that are also making below the MLE).
I dunno – this team has a puncher’s chance at the title this year but it is not like the 2012 knicks where we had 100 year old Kurt Thomas, Sheed, and Jason Kidd — we will (health-willing) be just as good if not better next year. I would be very much against any significant move that results in a sell-low on any of our current assets, including Dadiet and Mitch. Especially just to get a player that probably would get played off the floor against the Celtics, Pacers, etc.
Frank, I agree that Jonas doesn’t seem like he should be the move at the deadline. But Begley doesn’t just idly throw out names. He’s clearly heard about interest in the guy from our FO.
Wasn’t McCullar considered more of a Josh Hart type than a 3 and D guy?
Yeah, he’s not a 3&D guy because there’s no 3. He can do everything else more than okay and defends really, really well.
Looked back at Vecenie’s draft board and he said McCullar would go in the first round of he could shoot and stay healthy. The fact he was 55th on his list tells you how much he believes in his health and shooting.
Watching Precious switch effectively on the perimeter and look somewhat interchangeable with OG Bridges and Hart, I donāt know why we would possibly want Jonas.
Heās a situational big at best at this stage.
Also, enjoyed this from Josh about how accepting a secondary role has ironically allowed his game to blossom. Also liked the host subtly putting her co-host in his place for being juvenile.
https://x.com/benritholtznba/status/1885091347813511233?s=46&t=0wqff4cNt-sCGcDs-uMExw
Good morning, fellow Knickerbloggers!!!
Sengun didn’t play last night. Steven Adams started and got 11 and 10. Raise your hand if you thought that he was still capable of such a thing. Maybe there is hope for Mitch after an extended absence, too.
Mine is littered with crow meat that I got from a restaurant in Queens that Clarence recommended.
In looking at McCullar’s film from college and last night, I don’t see much potential there, not at 24 years old. It doesn’t help that he hasn’t been playing for so long. He not only can’t shoot, his drives to the hoop are clunky with not great body control. That’s where the comparison to Hart fails, he’s a gifted finisher and has exquisite body control. I’d love to be wrong on him, but nothing I’ve looked gives me confidence.
Looks like Julius had a groin injury and had to leave the game last night. I wonder if that can affect his trade market.
In all seriousness, a path to the title could be paved with some unlikely offensive growth from Precious Achiuwa that allows Thibs to unleash the OG/Achiuwa defensive combo more liberally. I love the way the those two guys play defense together and I think it could be a game changer.
Externally, I think the Celtics (who seem exhausted) need to stay in this gear and not get up to last yearās speed.
And I think it requires someone like Denver or Memphis to represent the West in the finals instead of OKC.
And of course weād need excellent health. An easy first round matchup that we can wrap up in 4 or 5 games would be a boon.
Luka Garza had 16 (4-of-8 shooting) and 4 in 14 minutes off the Wolves bench. He’s always been kind of interesting, and was a great player in college.
I am truly concerned about playing the Celts in round 2, but that is looking kind of inevitable. But if we can beat them, we can beat anyone.
Considering how awful the East is from spots 6-10 Knicks 1st rd opponent shouldn’t be a problem. Orlando has been dreadful since Banchero returned, even with Wagner also back they still lost by 29 last night at Portland.
McCullar’s potential is on the defensive end where he’s quick laterally and uses his strength very effectively. He does a good job stripping the ball from the handler. He guarded 1-4 in college and may be strong enough to do it in the NBA. Vecenie describes him as not quite an all-nba defensive prospect.
Offensively, he’s a great, great cutter. He can run a bit of PnR, making the right reads and getting the ball where it needs to go. He won’t do anything spectacular out of the PnR but he can hit the far corner shooter and make the pocket pass.
He’s not as explosive as Hart, so if you’re thinking Hart you might be disappointed in his clips, but he always knows where he needs to be, grabbing rebounds and loose balls, and where the ball needs to be when passing.
We kinda did that last year with Grimes/Bojan, though. Hopefully whichever member of the team of rivals pushed for that one has less influence this year.
Valanciunas makes sense if you watch OG and Mikal cover for KAT/Brunson and think, “Why are we making this easy on them?”
Hubert, stop procrastinating!!! I swear I’ll still argue with you afterwards!
“Offensively, heās a great, great cutter. He can run a bit of PnR, making the right reads and getting the ball where it needs to go. He wonāt do anything spectacular out of the PnR but he can hit the far corner shooter and make the pocket pass.”
Sorry, this seems like wishcasting to me. He was 4-5 years older than many of his peers in the draft and was taking advantage of being more experienced and physically developed than the typical NCAA player. He also played for a coach who has a reputation for getting the most out of wings at the collegiate level.
I see him topping out as a garden-variety G-League wing, which is fine considering that he was picked at #55 at age 23. But who knows, maybe with a lot of hard work he transforms his body, mind, and game. It does happen! But if I had to bet the O/U on 2,000 career NBA minutes, I’d go with the under.
If Mitch is running and jumping and taking even light contact, that’s a very good sign. I would just roll with him unless some kind of a steal becomes available. I think there will be some opportunities on the post-deadline buyout/waiver market.
I believe that Mitch is a risk worth taking right now (as opposed to making a deal that could ruin the quickly improving vibes), but we have to understand that this chance is very, very likely his last to be a cromulent NBA player.
Those were all things he did in college. It’s already happened.
Chances are he’s out of the league because he can’t shoot and he can’t stay healthy. It has little to do with the rest of his offensive game.
“If Mitch is running and jumping and taking even light contact, thatās a very good sign. I would just roll with him unless some kind of a steal becomes available.”
I would agree…if I knew that were true, and for the right reasons. Remember we are talking about medical info coming from the Knicks. If he is being shopped you let it be known that he is jumping, even if he is allowed no more than a single very small one per day in a padded walking boot.
If it were not true, heād be flagged at the required physical prior to the trade being finalized. I donāt think you can get away with fudging this stuff.
Every guy in the G league did stuff like that in college. At this point, it means zero.
As BBA pointed out, it’s really crazy how much the Magic have sucked since Banchero and Wagner came back.
Maybe they need to play the hustlebunnies more?
They probably miss Suggs a lot.
lol thanks, cyber! But I was up at 4:30am with anxiety from all the avoidance and I got everything done before 9, so Iām good now š
And without the anxiety of avoiding something Iām a lot less argumentative.
Back to Precious, even if we donāt get unexpected offensive improvement from him, I think he could be effective if deployed correctly. And I think the correct way to deploy him is when Hart is not on the court. I think Preciousā shit-ness on offense would matter a lot less if he were sharing the court with OG, Bridges, Brunson, and Towns. Alas, we never rest Josh, so we may never know.
More fun nuggets in the Macri newsletter, which I will not link to (and Z-Man at some point it’ll be interesting to hear about the genealogy link…). But re Owen’s comment on Precious, and our talk of needing some lumbering dude like Valenzuela (I feel confident making that joke since a) I don’t know how to spell it and am too lazy to look, and b) Doogie’s been a fantastic member of the KB family for some time now):
“Over this five-game winning streak, Precious Achiuwa has 10 swipes in 99 minutes of action. His 1.8 steals per 36 minutes over the full season already leads the team, but his 3.7 steals per 36 over these five games is fourth in the league among players who have seen at least 90 minutes of court time, trailing only Dyson Daniels, Tari Eason and Josh Okogie.”
The issues with Precious have always been on the offensive end and his inconsistency – a team can kind of work around his jumper (or lack thereof), but he misses rotations, tries to do too much and turns the ball over, etc. He thus has great periods where he looks like a solution, and moments where he swings the tide in the wrong way at the wrong time. His fast breaks the other night are a decent example: he made really poor shots and/or TOs trying to make spectacular plays that he actually DID make the previous game. (In the game thread someone called him a ballerina.) You can get away with it in the regular season, but it can be deadly in the playoffs. Coaches prize consistency for a reason.
I’m just glad Precious is back to having up and down games. Before the recent stretch they seemed pretty consistently down. He’s only 25, theoretically he could have a late breakout where he puts it all together with more consistency. Emphasis on the theoretical part.
He’s currently shooting 41.2% from 3 on 17 shots… and 51.9% from the FT line on 27 attempts. Such a frustrating player.
Agree, in the last 3-4 years we used to have benches with steady players (J-Hart, I-Hart, D-Rose, to an extent IQ) who were more “added starters”, alas our current group is made of high-variance, “real bench” guys, you’ll never know what you’ll get out of Rollercoaster Payne, Chocolate Box Achiuwa or this hot & cold version of Deuce.
But to be fair they’re playing better, as a unit, in the last few games.
Trading Sims for nothing actually helps us way more than such a move normally would, since we’re about a millimeter away from the second-apron hard cap and have thus been playing shorthanded for a while. It would give us the flexibility to sign Warren, Brown, Okeke, or whoever else to a minimum deal immediately, and I think we could still sign a 15th man at some point too. So I hope it happens, with any pick compensation coming back being gravy.
Precious has been awesome as of late. I’m happy we have him. I don’t think there’s every going to be a puts-it-all-together moment because he’s not good enough at any individual thing, but you could do worse for $6M than a situational defender who is good in a lot of different situations. You could even see him having some utility in a potential series against Boston since they don’t really beat you over the head with size.
The road to the NBA Finals is through Boston.
Because Sims is earning a tad over the full season minimum and anyone we sign will be on a prorated deal, we could sign two players immediately.
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