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Knicks Morning News (2025.07.07)
07/07/2025 11:00:00
07/07/2025 11:00:01
07/07/2025 10:40:32
07/07/2025 10:18:00
07/07/2025 10:30:00
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82 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.07)”
Sorry folks, I was assuming that by having “2 spots left” it meant that we had 13 players under contract, but I was obviously mistaken and we currently have only 12 such players:
Likely rotation (9): Brunson, KAT, Bridges, OG, Hart, Mitch, Deuce, Clarkson, Yabusele
Extended bench (3): Kolek, Huk, Dadiet
So we MUST add 2 players by two weeks into the season to get to the mandatory 14, meaning that we can’t wait for a prorated vet’s minimum as there isn’t enough time. So once again, barring any trades that open up cap space, we will be going through the season with only a 14-man roster and the 3 two-ways. I suppose that’s not an issue, given that the 15th guy would likely never see the court any more than a 2-way player would.
(I’m assuming that going into the season for two weeks with only 13 players would not free up enough space for the 13th and 14th player to both be at the vet’s minimum, although it seems that if there were enough games in that two week period the math would be close…)
starters: brunson (34) mcbride (28) anunoby (32) towns (30) robinson (24)
dynamic bench: clarkson (16) bridges (23) hart (19) yabusele (20) hukporti (14)
the rest: kolek mccullar nnaji
pg: brunson 34, mcbride 10, clarkson 4
sg: mcbride 18, bridges 18, clarkson 12
sf: anunoby 32, hart 11, bridges 5
pf: towns 30, yabusele 10, hart 8
c: robinson 24, hukporti 14, yabusele 10
Edwards breakdown of what he’d ideally like to see from Kolek, Dadiet, McCullar, Hukporti, and Diawara at summer league: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6476055/2025/07/07/nba-summer-league-preview-knicks/?source=emp_shared_article
He doesn’t mention James Nnaji, who was drafted by Detroit while he was on that beat (albeit traded away less than a week later). I asked him about it on BlueSky. Will see if he has any thoughts.
He replied:
We’re in offseason/summer league mode, so I guess the James Nnaji Drama is as solid a topic as any.
It’s interesting to hear Edwards say that because Macri speculates in his newsletter this morning that Nnaji has the inside track on the 14th spot, and it’s hard to see why he wouldn’t when you keep in mind that, as of now, that spot has to go to someone with zero NBA experience.
It’s possible we want to wait until we can offer a full three or four year contract to Nnaji before rostering him (I believe we could only go up to two years at the minimum, and of course he’d be free to hold out for more), but then I’m not sure who exactly we would use the slot on because the implication would be that we’re intrigued enough to roster the guy, but not enough to want to lock him in for more than two years. I guess you’re looking at someone who you think could play in a pinch, but doesn’t have much upside.
Maybe Hugo Besson is our guy? He’d played well in the BSL, which last I checked is regarded as arguably the 3rd best league in the world behind the NBA and La Liga.
OK.
If Clarkson counts as one of the 2 vet minimums Katz was talking about, then I vote for adding Wright. I like Shamet and Payne also, but I think Clarkson is now the score first guard off the bench replacing Payne. That leaves Shamet and Wright. I’m not satsified we are set at PG. Clarkson is less of a PG than even Payne. I don’t think Deuce is the guy and I guess we’ll see more of Kolek in summer league. But if Kolek is not the backup PG, imo we need another PG. So I would vote for Wright. He’s not going to score, but he’ll defend and play the position. And I’m actually sorry to see Shamet go if he’s out.
Here’s hoping Kolek looks very good.
Macri’s newsletter makes a few other notable points, from reading between the lines of various reports from beat writers and national reporters:
1. He thinks Brown is definitely going to play a 10-man rotation.
2. Barring a summer league breakout, an injury to a vet, or a big roster shakeup, he doesn’t expect the second year guys to play a ton.
3. He thinks we are looking to go with a double-big starting lineup, with Brown using KAT at the 5 more as a change of pace than a standard look.
4. We’re looking for a bigger backup guard or wing (hence the interest in Dante Exum and Ben Simmons).
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6476399/2025/07/07/luka-doncic-lakers-kevin-durant-rockets-nba-extensions/
Hollinger’s column on various extension conundrums for the offseason of course mentions Mikal:
If we go the pg route, I would prefer Delano Banton, but he might be too pricy for us.
But considering Mitch’s history, I still think we could use another center. Thomas Bryant looked decent last season, although I’m sure he wants a bigger role. And hey, there’s always Taj!
i would also love to keep delon if possible i am also working under the assumption that both shamet and payne are gone
sorry but i do not think hugo besson is our guy he is a 6-3 guard which does not seem to be our biggest need in terms of flyers
dalano banton would be great see no way of fitting him in tho either salary wise or minutes wise
Maybe there’s just no market for Collins at this point, but that feels like the Jazz did it solely to assist their tank?
Dante is probably a much more valuable player for a playoff team at this point, but it’s hard not to wish cast on Simmons.
Simmons wouldn’t be bad for the minimum, but he probably can’t play at all in the playoffs. We’d probably need to endure a Clarkson/Hart/Simmons/Mitch lineup at some point which features a level of 3pt shooting matched by a middle school team.
Why in the world would the clips make this trade? Norman Powell is leaps and bounds better than Collins.
Getting Mikal to accept a salary signifcantly less than OG’s could be a problem.
The Clippers shipping out Norm Powell and getting John Collins back is a headscratcher.
My Clippers fan friend isn’t happy with the trade, but also acknowledges that they really needed a power forward. But if Harden is out for an extended period, they’re screwed.
Oh, it looks like Powell has one year left on his deal and they don’t want to pay him at age 33.
Also it seems to be rumored that they’ll be taking Beal off of Phoenix’s hands. I have no idea what kind of player Beal is at this point.
I think we’ll be better defensively, but imo Towns is not nearly as effective or impactful at PF. He does his best work and is most impactful for others at C playing 5 out. I’m sort of hoping Yabu is better than I think and we can play a lot more Towns, Yabu, OG, Mikal and Brunson than anyone in the media seems to be envisioning now. Yabu is not the PF I’ve been dreaming of pairing Towns with for a long time, but maybe he’s good enough.
Weird trade, who knows what the Clips are doing.
I would wait as long as possible before committing to anyone for the rookie spot.
He can still score well when healthy. I think he has probably deteriorated on defense.
I guess LA doesn’t want to have to play Kawhi at PF, but this is still a terrible trade. I would rather just take Kyle Anderson + parts!
Also great job by Ainge of setting the price way too high on his guys and then basically losing them for nothing a few years later… he has to be the most overrated GM at this point.
Markkanen must really like it in Salt Lake City, because I don’t know how he has not asked out yet.
powell had a great year but i can see the clippers preferring collins next year. bogdan played pretty well for them after a horrendous start in atlanta and has a lot more overlap with powell than DJJ or Batum do with Collins, and both are expiring. but even more so if they think they have the inside track at beal. but i’m still surprised that miami got powell for basically nothing, given that kyle anderson was essentially out of their rotation.
the jazz might just be suring up the tank but they also might be clearing enough space to make an offer to one of the rfas.
Miami snagging Powell for some guys they didn’t want is a heist. Doesn’t alter their middling long-term trajectory, but will make them more annoying to play.
I didn’t really get it for LAC at first, but they do get a lot younger and if they think they’re getting Beal it checks out for them.
Utah has had a rough offseason between losing Sexton, Clarkson, and now Collins for little-to-no value in return. Seems like they held onto all of those guys for too long. It wasn’t that long ago that they looked to be in an excellent, OKC-like position, and they’ve even made mostly good picks since then IMO, but they’re looking like a good example of the risks of even a well-executed full rebuild. To get a blue chipper in tow you simply need some luck they haven’t had.
Why wouldn’t he? He is a guy that is sitting on 300 million and married his middle school sweetheart, has a couple of kids and isn’t into chasing around silicon enhanced Instagram models/baby mammas.
He can live in a beautiful suburb of multimillion dollar homes like Holiday in the shadow of Mt Olympus and a 20 minute drive from Alta and Snowbird and 30 minutes from Park City.
There are more Scandinavians in Salt Lake than anywhere in North America other than the Iron Range of Minnesota. Why wouldn’t he love it there?
I agree that Ainge is somewhat overrated. Seems like other teams have gotten wise to him.
Even if he does want out, where would he go? He’s always hurt, he’s a big that doesn’t rebound or defend, he doesn’t playmake for others, his shooting numbers tanked last year, and he’s making $49M AAV for the next 4 seasons.
Yeah I read somewhere that Ainge could now make an offer to our beloved Grimes, who would make a nice Robin to Lauri’s Batman and 2nd tank lieutenant.
Fucking Riley
A few years back I recommended that the other owners/GMs should more or less just block his phone number and make it known they were avoiding doing business with him. If you employ Ainge and you start hearing things like that, you may think twice about wanting to continue his employment. Everyone wants to get a good deal, but it’s not good for the league if a few guys are targetting and robbing some of weaker GMs over and over.
I’d rather him be on the Jazz than on the 76ers. He might help the Sixers.
Why is it bad for the league? This is a capitalist system. There is a hierarchy in every system. In the world of NBA GMs. someone is the best and someone is the worst. The best are the best because they pick on the weak (among other things).
Which is why if I were Leon, I’d be looking at Sacto and trying to swap KAT for Sabonis.
I keep forgetting about MarJon Beauchamp, who is on our summer leave roster. I still think he has some untapped potential and would give him a good look, even though we could probably use a center more.
I quite like what the Jazz are doing. To the point that if I ever were to Donnie they’d be where I look first.
Their biggest problem has been their coach has been too good for them to tank effectively. But Danny seems to be fixing that for him.
The Cody Williams pick last year killed them but they ended up with the two prospects we should have gotten: Collier & Filipowski. They both had promising rookie campaigns.
And I love the Ace Bailey pick.
They need to really stink this year, though. And I’m not sure what good Markannen does them.
To me this team needs another big wing and a guard to run the offense other than Brunson if Kolek isn’t going to be playing much.
kolek should play a good amount but i would love to retain wrights services ahead of him
I like Wright over Shamet – Wright is an inch taller at 6’5″ and has a slightly longer wingspan, so he should be a bit more positionally flexible and having a guy who can play cromulent defense in spots while moving the ball seems valuable for our roster.
I sort of like Shamet more out of the two because microwave 3pt shooting is more valuable as a non-rotation option, but would be fine with Wright…or pretty much anyone who can be a decent emergency rotation player. Even Cam would be sort of okay. Or any of Bagley III, Brogdan, Boucher, CP3, Horford, on down the line.
Just no G-League level scrubs or totally washed vets. please.
It’s not close between Shamet and Wright – Delon really can’t shoot. And Shamet is fine on D, so overall a much better player.
He wasn’t eligible to be traded last year after signing the extension. Ainge is probably eager to sell him for assets now that he can.
I don’t think Shamet is “fine’ on D…if he’s not making shots he’s virtually unplayable….we saw that in stretches last year. Wright is a very good defensive player and can be on the court even if he isn’t shooting so long as there are four other scorers out there, but he is also a career 35% shooter so not a complete zero out there.
I wonder if we should be considering Precious for this vet min spot.
Fun Facts:
Of the 22 players drafted immediately AFTER Pacome Dadiet, 18 of them played more minutes, 2 played less (Cam Christie, Bobby Klintman), and 2 didn’t see any NBA playing time. Another 5 players drafted after that saw more minutes.
Of the 13 players drafted immediately AFTER Tyler Kolek, 9 played more minutes, and 2 saw no NBA playing time.
Some cool names on our summer league roster:
-Dink Pate
-Yudai Baba
-Biwali Bayles
-Luka Scuka
Where’s Clyde when you need him?
I’d be fine with bringing Precious back.
https://xcancel.com/ringer/status/1942070132853088394?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1942070132853088394%7Ctwgr%5Eb848ea29f8511d3e3e9cff0f294027e6af2a5498%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.profootballnetwork.com%2Fnba%2Fnba-analysts-argue-eastern-conference-team-worst-situation-next-5-years%2F
Z-man, it seemed to me that Shamet was indeed fine on D once he fully recovered, which wasn’t until pretty late in the season. YMMV, but he completed well and didn’t get lost.
Delon does own a 35% rate from downtown, but I don’t know how. He missed almost all his shots when it counted, in the playoffs. And they weren’t close.
I mean, we’re talking about a 4 out of 10 vs. 3 out of 10, so I won’t cry either way. But Shamet offers a bit more than a PG who can’t penetrate or shoot but who plays solid D.
I agree to a point. The NBA is a stand alone business (league) competing with other leagues, sports and forms of entertainment. It’s more interesting than the typical business in that there are privately owned businesses (teams) underneath the NBA umbrella competing for players. But the NBA itself is run to maximize the league and not in a purely Laissez-faire way that might help some teams and damage others badly and hurt the league. The league wants some balance.
I agree that are good and bad GMs, good and bad owners and some will take advantage of others. I’m OK with that to a point. But if it starts hurting the league, IMO it’s a problem. How to fix that is another issue. Maybe you pressure the weak teams to make a management change? Maybe you blackball Ainge. 😉
Luka Scuka can’t be a real person
Another poetic on the summer league roster: Dae Dae Grant
I thought Shamet was bad on D for most of the season, but I thought he was really good in spots the playoffs. I’m not sure how to weight that vs. Wright. I like both of them, but I think we may need a PG more than a SG.
“Luka Scuka can’t be a real person”
See for yourself…even gets a shoutout from Dennis Schroeder!
Coming back from a separated shoulder meant being conservative until near the end of the season. Didn’t fight through screens, etc. I believe it was the injury, not ability.
But if we need a PG there’s always CP3.
looks like the jazz are entering year 3 (maybe 4) of their teardown…
dang, how many years/seasons does/should a good “rebuild” last…
they still seem far away from having a solid young core…
norman powell is a 20 million dollar player right now, i wonder how much he’ll be looking for from miami…
must be getting old, i had to look that one up 🙂
Shamet’s only defensive issue in the regular season was being too short to guard 3s in the league. In the playoffs, he mostly lined up against guys around his size.
If lined up against guards more frequently, he’d most likely have been a plus in the regular season too.
I like the idea of wright bc we know for sure he is a plus defender and can guard multiple positions and he can start in the regular season if Brunson is out.
Clarkson, deuce, hart, Yabu….feels like we’ll have plenty of scoring in the second unit but shoring up the defense is always a good thing.
But my guess is Leon is biding his time to convince a really good vet like CP3 to come here with that bet minimum.
He wants to win a title, but he said publicly he also wants to be close to home. I think NY is out.
He’ll change his mind once LBJ signs for the vet min. (The irony being that then we can’t afford him…)
Nobody over 40, please!
Is there any hope for Ben Simmons to make some sort of recovery to “playable” NBA player?
i would not want to be the team to pay ben simmons actual money in order to find that out
Sounds like Simmons might wind up in Miami.
so the clippers would in effect lose both norman powell and ben simmons to miami
He’ll just sign with the Knicks on the last day of the season once we finally have enough money for the prorated vet minimum. That way he can spend all season with his family.
I wouldnt want Banchero on that deal
Banchero score.
There’s a sizable percentage of fans who already think that the league is corrupt in both the draft and officiating to help certain franchises. Some (how many I’m not sure) NBA fans think referees cook the books in the most important playoff games to make a certain outcome occur.
Imagine if the league were run as a socialist organization with a central group choosing which players go where? You would never hear the end of it. It could literally be a bunch of monkeys on keyboards randomly doing the work, and people would say that some of the monkeys have been trained or are getting extra bananas.
they had to pay paolo that pretty much but not a good value at that cost
yamamoto really sux sometimes
You’re thinking of some of the front offices, not the league
“I mean, we’re talking about a 4 out of 10 vs. 3 out of 10, so I won’t cry either way. But Shamet offers a bit more than a PG who can’t penetrate or shoot but who plays solid D.”
Rhat’s my only point, rama. You said “it was not close” between the two and I think it’s pretty close. I also said that I’d prefer Shamet, but disagree that he was ever decent on D. He’s really a tiny wing who can play some at the 2 but he’s not ideal there either. The only thing that makes him valuable imho is the theoretical ability to make 3’s in bunches. But if he isn’t hitting, he’s a huge liability out there.
It’s important to remember that offenses hunt mismatches, so even if Shamet is only 6’4″ and slightly built, so even if he is theoretically playing the 2, good offenses will run actions to get him isolated against a bigger, stronger players who he can’t physically match up with, and every team has 2 or 3 of those players on the floor all the time. Being that none of our PGs (Brunson, Deuce, Clarkson, or Kolek) is very big, when Shamet is out there with one of them, you have two players on the floor who can’t guard “up” at all. Wright is a strong 6’5″ and more capable of guarding up. You lose the pull-up 3’s but you gain playmaking and defense.
I know that our roster appears “deep” but is it really? Once you get past our “core 9” you have 3 sophs who may or may not pan out if they are pressed into rotation minutes due to injury.
So the 13th guy might actually need to be #10 on the depth chart, and the 14th guy should be someone who brings something that none of Huk, Kolek, or Dadiet bring. To me, Huk is probably the most reliable of the third-string sophs, so I wouldn’t necessarily go for a big with the vet’s minimum spot. If Shamet’s the guy, then you probably need a big wing for that 14th spot. If it’s Delon or Boucher, then you could go big or small.
Boucher would be considerably better than Shamet, but I haven’t imagined he’d be gettable. That would be a steal – and yeah, then we’d need to pick up a small.
Shamet’s D looked a lot better in the playoffs for whatever reason…
Kendrick Perkins wants KAT to lose 15 pounds in the off season to improve his quickness, especially on defense.
Where have we heard that before. 😉
Strat and Kendrick…perfect together.
🤣
I wouldn’t approve of anything extreme, but we already have a lottery and cap rules in place to at least try to retain some balance. I think some private conversations between the commissioner and an owner about replacing incompetent management or various competent owners icing someone out that’s not behaving in the best interests of the league would be OK. The league got rid of Hinkie when they thought he was over the top in the way he was dealing with players.
I think this is the second time I agree with him, but the other was so long ago I can’t remember what it was about. 😉
We are a contending team, it is early July, and the player we sign with the vet minimum has a very good shot at being an important part of the rotation. I certainly hope we can do a lot better than Shamet or Wright.
I’m not sure about that. We for sure have KAT, OG, Bridges, Hart, Brunson, McBride, Robinson in the rotation and likely Clarkson and Yabusele too. That’s nine players. With a nine player rotation a new vet minimum has to be better than one of them to get minutes. With a ten player rotation he also competes with Dadiet, Kolek and Hukporti. He will have to be pretty good to get minutes.
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