02/27/2025 11:00:00
02/27/2025 10:49:34
02/27/2025 10:39:00
02/27/2025 10:01:39
02/27/2025 09:12:45
02/27/2025 08:03:11
02/27/2025 08:02:27
02/27/2025 06:10:00
02/27/2025 06:19:46
02/27/2025 06:35:47
02/27/2025 06:33:00
02/27/2025 05:00:00
02/27/2025 04:48:00
02/27/2025 05:23:50
02/27/2025 04:50:28
02/27/2025 04:02:49
02/27/2025 04:08:27
02/27/2025 03:58:44
02/27/2025 03:54:32
02/27/2025 04:30:00
93 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.02.27)”
Educate_the_weak says:
February 26, 2025 at 23:21
RJ Luis JR is an interesting prospect on ST Johns. I wouldn’t mind him with the pick in the 50s.
Downtown Doogie Brown says:
February 26, 2025 at 23:56
My G-d, ETW, do we really need to have another guy named RJ on this team to discuss ad infinitum? Hard pass. (Only kidding. I don’t follow college b-ball. If he’s good and he fits, I don’t care what his name is. And I do love St. John’s, as the first 7 years of my life were spent in Jamaica, Queens. But it’s not like Thibs will likely play him, anyway.)
Didn’t see the game tonight. Did Huk end the game hurt, or was he OK?
And it wasn’t just Day’Ron. The other Sharpe—Shaedon—had 36 points tonight.
Downtown Doogie Brown says:
February 27, 2025 at 00:19
Made me start thinking about the draft. How about Khaman Maluach (7-1, 250 out of Duke), who supposedly compares to Myles Turner? He’d be available to us at the end of the first round. That’s our sweet spot.
RIP Gene Hackman
I guess we gave up on being super cautious with Hart & OG.
Please stop trolling. Don’t ask why I’m saying that go figure it out.
RIP Gene Hackman, farewell and thanks.
Popeye Doyle, Harry Caul, Harry Moseby, Coach Dale, FBI’s Rupert Anderson, Little Bill Daggett, Johnny Gallagher and many others will stay with me forever.
I really wasn’t trolling; it was a sincere question. If you want to think otherwise, that’s kind of on you.
Yeah, Hackman was top-notch. Sounds like a tragic scene, his wife and dog were found dead with him but foul play not suspected. Maybe carbon monoxide?
Maluach is the best center in college basketball and will be a lottery pick.
Knowing that is on you
Doogie, beyond what Owen said, we don’t even have a first rounder. Maybe if you indicated that you knew that and proposed how to acquire one, it wouldn’t have been interpreted that way.
I told you that I don’t follow college ball. There is no requirement that I do so, as far as I know.
He hurt his knee
Thanks, Z-man. I was going by a Web site that said that we had four total picks, including two in the first round (admit that it didn’t sound right, though, as I know what we gave up for Mikal—just didn’t know if they were all 2025 picks, or future ones). I can be accused of picking my NBA draft Web sites badly, or maybe of “believing everything I read” on one of them, but that’s all. 🙂 No ill intended here.
Although I do wonder if teams above, at, or near the aprons will be looking to move firsts at bargain prices to avoid the guaranteed salaries, cap holds, etc.
By the way, that Web site also said that Maluach is slated to go at the end of the first round. I wasn’t trolling on that, either. I just believed some bad information. Seemingly not updated fully for 2025 draft yet.
There is also Amari Williams out of Kentucky.
Hackman was one of those guys where nearly every performance he gave had a good argument to at least be nominated for an Oscar. (It is insane that he wasn’t nominated for The Conversation, which is one of the all-time great screen performances.) The police say no foul play, which points to something like carbon monoxide. Still, an awful scene, especially since his wife (and dog) were much younger.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6162451/2025/02/27/knicks-buyout-market-names-to-watch/?source=emp_shared_article
We can sign a 15th man on Saturday, and Edwards III runs down the five candidates. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t TJ Warren, with Okeke as the only other one I wouldn’t be shocked by.
(I should amend that to “runs down five candidates,” not “the five candidates,” since the three non-Westchester guys are just free agents whom Edwards thinks might be a fit, even if he doesn’t expect the organization to bring in someone from the outside at this point.)
Anyone else feel like Josh Hart might take more pride in averaging double figures in rebounds rather than how many points he averages? He’s at 14.7/9.8/5.7 right now. Those would be career bests for him in rebounds and assists, and only 0.2 less than the 14.9 points he averaged for the Pellies/Portland three seasons ago.
Jeez, RIP Gene Hackman.
Considering Josh actively passes up open looks I think the answer is pretty obvious.
Of the 5, I’d be okay (or Okeke) with any of them. They will largely be a break glass in case of emergency player. With KAT and Huk both having knee issues and Mitch being Mitch, maybe an emergency big is the way to go. Wood is talented, but a low-IQ player. Is there another guy out there over 6’10” with long arms?
My guess is that TJ’s patience is rewarded, seems like a stand-up guy and he was a legit NBA rotation player when healthy. Okeke and Duarte never were, and Richardson is probably shot.
Couldn’t access Alan’s link. Is “Wood” Christian Wood? Which “Richardson” is this?
By all accounts, it’s a psychological thing with Hart. He goes through stretches where he becomes convinced that he can’t, or at least, shouldn’t, shoot. And then he goes through other stretches where he will bomb away whenever left open. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason for how long it takes him to get out of the former phase and into the latter.
And this is why, even with the season he is having, I think moving Josh to the bench if Mitch starts is the way to go.
Mikal can shoot and score and spread the floor better than Josh. Josh can be the energy guy off the bench who grabs boards and gets out in transition and sets up Deuce and Cam (and TJ, lol).
If Mitch starts, we don’t need Josh’s rebounding as much. But he would shore up the bench so much and he’s still going to play a ton of minutes and probably close out a lot of games.
Politically, though, it could be tough. Yes, we gave up 5 picks for Mikal but Josh is also super tight with Brunson.
But I think the team is better served with Josh off the bench.
Hart will inevitably go off in the 1st rd and light up Detroit or Milwaukee from 3.
Mikal looked pretty good filling in offensively with Towns out.
The Hackman news seems strange. Will leave it at that.
My personal rank of the five candidates:
1. Okeke/TJ Warren (mainly because they waited in Westchester)
2. Duarte
3. Richardson
Don’t touch with a 30-feet pole: Christian Wood
Richardson first name? Josh? If Josh, we don’t need him.
Yes, Josh Richardson and Christian Wood.
approximately one hundred and fifty thousand people die each day…a mind boggling number…
lifestyles of the rich and famous, some die with a name, some die nameless…
Since our most astute poster brought up the draft, I’m seeing that the Ivisic twins are ranked really low (end of 2nd round). Yet their stats seem legit for freshmen. And they’re each 7’2” with legit range. I know their rebounding is weak, but they could be good targets, especially the one playing for coach Cal.
Thanks, Z-man. Yeah, hard no on Christian Wood. Talented, but he’s failed too many times in too many places to think he can help. We already have better versions of Josh Richardson and of Chris Duarte, too, for that matter.
I like both Warren and Okeke as experiments. Can we get both if we get rid of Matt Ryan?
Is (my worst draft miss ever) Mo Bamba available? Seems like he’d be a good end of bench big.
Apologies if that was a sincere mistake, but it’s difficult to believe when we only have a single pick at the end of the 2nd round and the player is way above the end of the 1st.
Bamba was playing for the Clippers not that long ago (a month?), and playing pretty decently. Not sure of current status.
Like I said, bad Web site, and too naive on my part to notice that the information was bad. Don’t want to call out the Web site by name, as it probably will be better and more reliable closer to the draft. No apology necessary; I get it.
Bamba was traded to the Jazz February 1st and waived by Utah February 2nd.
There were rumors about him in the buyout market and Euroleague’s market but from what I read it looks like he could still be free.
If Bamba is available, not sure why we’re not jumping on that opportunity.
https://x.com/DraftExpress/status/1894766693999611973?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet Would the Knicks actually tank?
Maybe his wife pulled a Cio-Cio-San from Madame Butterfly? It’s the first thing that came to mind.
Intriguing video, ETW, with the caveat that all of those highlight/hype videos only show the “good stuff” without any of the bad. And we’d never tank with this coach.
Shit, if the Wiz somehow got Cooper Flagg *and* this guy, they’d be more than scary. (Probably wouldn’t be bad enough to get Dybantsa if they get Flagg, though.)
Bamba has elite measurables but apparently no motor or b-ball IQ. Can he be coached up? Starting with punching him in the nuts every time he attempts a 3? I mean, Luke Kornet has all of a sudden become a very valuable rotation piece, and part of the reason is that he is no longer being used as a stretch 5. Is the motor beyond repair? It would be a nice story, he was born in Harlem so they could re-do Melo’s whole “I’m Coming Home” thing…
Took a look at box out numbers. Hukporti has been bad rebounding and wondered if he was boxing out instead of going for the board. It’s more common in Europe, unless that’s changed. With Hart the first to every ball, it would also make sense strategically.
Last night Hukporti had 3 boxouts in the boxscore. For comparison, every other player on both sides combined for 4. Huk averages 2.8 per 36, which puts him 22nd in the league but absolutely does not make up for his poor rebounding. But some other stuff I found:
The top boxer outer per 36 is, unsurprisingly, Stephen Adams.
Zach Edey is 2nd. I guess being big isn’t enough when you’re that slow.
Then it starts getting interesting (at least 100 minutes):
3. Taj
4. Valanciunas
5. Sims
6. Hartenstein
Hartenstein seems to have been pretty good pre-Knicks too, but most of those samples were pretty small. Mitch is up near the top when he plays. Thibs has a type.
Looking back 6 years ago, the leaders in box outs today are averaging half what those guys did per 36… Or 1/3 of Knick-legend Ed Davis’s number. Not sure if that’s a philosophical change or a stat keeping change but it’s a wild discrepancy.
For what’s worth, the game thread jokes* about Mikal’s ability to disappear have a link with numbers.
In 10 February games, including yesterday, his USG% (17.8%) was the lowest of the year so far, a little weird when you consider that OG, KAT and Josh missed a bunch of game during this month and additional shots were available.
Let’s hope yesterday’s game, or at least the first quarter*, was a sign of (good) things to come.
* Stats, Humor, Analysis
** Fun fact (?): JB had 7 assists in the 1st quarter, none in the the rest of the game.
In games when KAT is out, we very much need Brooklyn Mikal to appear. We definitely got that in stretches last night, especially early on. I just don’t know if the usage issue the majority of the season is a Mikal thing or a scheme thing. But we need a secondary creator, and he’s much more capable of that in theory than OG, Hart, or Deuce.
EB,
I was thinking the same during the game and started eye-testing Huk closely.
To me it’s in part boxing out, in part rim-protecting/helping out the bounce radius and in part some iffy timing/not-so-strong hands.
Some things should improve with experience.
But at least he often raises his arms 😉
Oh, geez. Max just mentioned “rim protecting” again. Be afraid. 🙂
I’m not worried about Brooklyn Mikal showing up. When Towns is in he’s naturally going to get way fewer touches. When Towns is out he shows he’s capable of doing a little more than just 3rd option. We obviously aren’t always going to get the same consistent scoring we get from Towns. That’s why Towns is 2nd option. But he can step into the role. I’m more worried about OG. He doesn’t look right yet to me.
RIP Gene Hackman. That one hurts. He’s on my GOAT short list.
Wow..that Gene Hackman news is really heartbreaking. I think we all can and should be doing a better job checking on our elders.
Rest well to the legend, man.
Sheesh
The more I think about it..maybe Mitch should start once he’s back. To accommodate for the lack of scoring on the 2nd unit, we can just have Hart on that unit and go small with Achiuwa at the 5. That way we play at a faster pace with lots of switching and just enough rebounding to not fall way behind when they’re out there. But for now we should probably sign someone like Bamba to a 10 day just to hold us until we figure out our KAT/Mitch/Hukporti availability thing
i am the danger
https://x.com/nbeinstein/status/1895153595638845750?s=46
It’s odd because I also remember reading that he was an elite student with an exceptional non-bball IQ. I think most people had high hopes for Bamba, but at his age, I’d say there really isn’t upside anymore. He should probably go to Europe, but I’d take him in Westchester.
I don’t see the point of bringing in Mo Bamba unless it’s to Westchester. He’s never been able to stick anywhere and even teams that are desperate for bigs, like LAL, don’t want him. Maybe he’ll figure it out someday but I don’t think it’s going to happen on an NBA team first.
Think it was Taco that wanted to study engineering
Everyone mentions Hoosiers but my favorite Gene Hackman sports movie is The Replacements.
Has anyone seen Nickel Boys? Was reading an article to prepare for my Oscar pool and apparently it’s the best movie of the year. (but won’t win)
A reliable friend says it’s great; haven’t seen it
Huk out 4 to 6 weeks with a torn meniscus.
Well, shit.
EDIT: BBA beat me to it!
That stinks
TY Rama
Christian Wood and Mo Bamba have a proud history of getting fan bases excited and then disappointing them profoundly.
It’s boring and like most 15th roster spots is unlikely to amount to anything, but seeing if Warren has anything left to give still seems like the best option. At least he’s throwing up 10(!) 3s per game in Westchester. Lord knows we could use that.
I wonder if this makes them change direction in terms of the 15th roster spot? Mitch is in theory back soon, but we need him to be healthy or we could soon be looking at 48 minutes of Precious.
4-6 weeks seems like the timetable for removing, not repairing, the meniscus.
I am not a doctor, but my impression is that is almost never a good idea.
Seeing some stuff on Twitter about how hard we tried to acquire Embiid in the offseason before Towns and Mikal.
Was that a thing? I have the memory of a goldfish but I feel like I should remember that if it was ever a possibility.
Certainly, it makes you feel better about what we did end up doing.
Damn, feel so bad for Huk. Is this related to his past surgery or different?
Is Moses Brown still around?
That is depressing. It may change what we do with our last roster spot.
If we did go after that bum we certainly did it quietly. It was not discussed here.
I’ve actually been wondering if Embiid is a decent buy low candidate now that Morey probably has to attach picks to dump his salary. We know Leon has always coveted him so it’s probably going to be in play.
Let’s say Brock Aller can figure out a magical way to bridge the salary gap without including Mitch or anyone meaningful…
and let’s also assume he’s just injured and his knee isn’t permanently blown out…
would you do OG for Embiid and the Sixers ‘29 first, and bet on a culture change/work ethic to change his trajectory?
The upside of KAT & Embiid is enticing but I think I’d be afraid to stake the whole Jalen Brunson era on it.
Fuck that guy. No thanks.
Jake Fischer said:
So doesn’t sound like anything concrete, but for all of the legitimate grievances we do have, man, “bullet dodged” does not go far enough.
Doesn’t seem like Embiid is with CAA anymore
That’s how I feel but if it’s true we pursued him this summer even after that playoff series then it’s safe to assume Leon still loves him. When Morey starts looking to dump Embiid we’re probably his first call. If the medical report is bad enough, I have no concern. But if it’s encouraging…
There is positively no way we can match $55.2M in salary next season without giving up extremely valuable players, plural, and the rest of Fischer’s article makes it seem like this might be heading towards a very sad medical retirement (that’s my speculation, not his words).
Let me go to the trade machine…
We can cut Matt Ryan for a two-way C to use until KAT or Mitch comes back. That way we can use the 15th spot on a big wing.
That’s not a bad idea, EB. Moses Brown would have been useful in this circumstance, but such is life.
If the medical report is encouraging I have no doubt Leon would throw in Mitch to match the salary. But I also have no doubt that everyone here would have said no to OG + Mitch, so I came up with the alternate scenario.
Brock Aller is pretty impressive, though, and only $15M separates Overpaid Grossly Anunoby from a recent MVP next year. I can see him finding a way to bridge that with Precious and filler.
Fingers crossed, then, that Embiid’s medical is terrible. Not just bc it will be horrible for him and the Sixers, but bc I’m afraid we’ll trade for him if it isn’t.
I was an advocate for Embiid once upon a time, maybe three years ago now, but after last year’s playoffs, fuck that guy. Bullet dodged indeed. While this team has lots of holes and can be quite frustrating, I feel pretty good about rooting for them as people.
Prior to the start of the season Joel was a top 5 player with a contract that likely would be an albatross in later years or if he was injured beforehand. That the Knicks, or any team with a current three year window were lurking makes perfect sense. Yes bullet dodged but can’t blame Leon for some significant sniffing.
Karma’s a bitch
Bummed about Huk, he was starting to look pretty good.
This makes sense
Wouldn’t signing a 10-day push back the date we can sign an ROS minimum? It may well be worth it to be clear, but it could interfere with a wink-wink agreement we might already have with Warren.
The downside is 2-ways are limited to players with only so many years of NBA experience, so whoever it was would probably suck.
As TNFH suggests, the 10-day would push the Warren timeline back 10 days. On the other hand, we could theoretically sign someone better.
If Mitch is coming back this next game and KAT too, do we need to sign a guy right now? Could we get TJ and then grab a center in a few weeks?
Here’s the order of things to do the EB plan:
1. On Saturday, sign Warren or Okeke to a vet minimum contract for the rest of the season.
2. Cut Matt Ryan, or Jacob Toppin, but try to keep them in Westchester ecosystem.
3. Find a FA or an available G-leaguer and sign them to a two-way contract, to serve as the fourth-string center behind KAT, Mitch, and Precious. This guy wouldn’t be expected to play much, and is just there for nights like last night where KAT isn’t playing.
3.
Embiid is contemplating surgery where they intentionally break his hip
Any volunteers?
In a just world Embiid’s surgery would be performed by one Mitchell Robinson
Shooting myself out of a mini-cannon or rocket launcher directly into his hip (with a helmet on, of course) sounds pretty fun. Sign me up.
Also the idea of acquiring Embiid at any cost seems absolutely terrible unless he’s a salary dump. What, is Greg Oden not available?
From the New York Times: Scattered Pills Found Near Body of Gene Hackman’s Wife as Inquiry Continues
This site uses User Verification plugin to reduce spam. See how your comment data is processed.