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Knicks Morning News (2025.07.11)
07/11/2025 11:00:03
07/11/2025 10:38:00
07/11/2025 04:22:04
07/11/2025 01:52:30
07/11/2025 01:11:31
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07/10/2025 23:21:00
07/10/2025 23:26:53
07/10/2025 22:45:10
59 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.11)”
Uh, no, bc 8 of the 13 picks weren’t ours.
And please don’t play the picks weren’t good game. I’m not even talking about how we whiffed on Halliburton, Johnson, and Williams here. I’m talking about getting guys who could fill out the 9th, 10th, and 11th spots better than guys like Clarkson. There countless guys like that available over the years for us to take.
Okay, now is the right day to say it:
Huk Huk!
I don’t think Cooper Flagg, high volume scorer, is going to be a thing, if last night’s Summer League game is any indication.
I watch zero college basketball, but none of the Flagg scouting reports suggested he was the kind of guy you could run an offense through. That said, Kawhi isn’t really that guy, either, and the healthy version of Kawhi is a monster.
Also, apropos of nothing, every year there are a couple of nights of “The Night Shift” at the WSOP Main Event. That’s the commentary duo of Ali Nejad and Nick Schulman on PokerGo. Ali is a long time poker journalist. Nick is a poker legend and shortly to be a Hall of Famer. He might also be the coolest man alive.
Only duo I might put up against Clyde and Breen.
Yeah, Flagg seems more of a do-everything guy with great defense. Maybe he was just forcing things for the fans. Competitive game though.
Also apropos of nothing outside of just another sign of the apocalypse, does anyone here actually click on stories that have the word “Bronny” in the headline?
I did read or hear something yesterday about Flagg taking a game or two to get it going when he was scrimmaging against team USA
Never been interested in Bronny except in how he muddles the Nature vs Nurture debate
I read the ESPN article about Flagg’s debut. Apparently, Kidd asked that Flagg play a lot of point guard. Kidd also wanted him to try new things in general. That’s got to be a big change for Flagg (As far as I know he’s a six foot eight guy who played forward in college). So I’m not disappointed in his scoring at all. A new position, especially point guard, is a lot to handle.
Oh, and one other thing. I can’t imagine Thibideau suggesting something like that.
Was it Kidd who played Giannis at PG? He wasn’t very good but maybe it helped him develop
When you are an all-star point guard, every player is a nail…
Alright, yeah, fair enough about Flagg. That is interesting he was put in a different role.
It’s funny how Summer League can turn out to be somewhat predictive. More than people would think.
Did have 3 steals and a block
Owen does this american have any shot at beating Carlitos?
I’m still scarred from having this thought in 2010: “You know, I’m almost glad LeBron didn’t sign here, because instead we did the David Lee sign-and-trade, and Anthony Randolph has looked like a monster in summer league!”
My mental check on summer league results is that year we played Cole Aldritch one game and he looked like prime shaq
I spent $89 on Kevin Knox jersey in the summer of ‘18. And I don’t even have the guns for a tank top.
I’d be overjoyed if any of our SL guys inspired me to pay $89 on a jersey this year. I don’t think this SL will be pretty.
My most traumatic SL memory is from 2008 when Gallo got run over by Robert “Tractor” Taylor (RIP) and fucked up his back.
Wasn’t Daymean Dotson also a summer league standout?
Summer league is about as predictive as 5th grade travel basketball.
just noticed the game is on at 6pm est on nba TV and espn +…even though it may not be exceptionally noteworthy I’ll still be checking in…
My 6 year old son has been a standout on the peewee court at Stuyvesant Town this summer.
Okay, so here’s the dream outcome for this SL roster. You tell me in what order you would be most excited about each of these thing:
1. Kolek is not only able to playmake at will for his teammates against these weird defenses, but looks for his own shot a lot.
2. Dadiet’s shot falls a bunch and he looks like he knows what he’s doing on defense.
3. Huk goes all Mitch in his second summer league.
4. James Nnaji goes all Summer League 2 Mitch.
5. McCullar stays healthy and he’s both willing and able to shoot a bit from outside.
6. Diawara looks like he might be playable in the NBA within a year or three.
7. Beauchamp and/or Watson look like they might be decent in case of emergency options for the deep deep bench.
I will also allow other options if you have them. Like, “Luka Scuka balls out.” Or a similar one for Dink Pate that I wrote about Diawara.
Lost a lot of interest in Dink Pate when I found out Dink is his nickname, not his given name. Could have been the best Knick moniker since Harthorne Wingo (RIP).
Like your 1-5. If Kolek or Dadiet make a leap that is huge for our depth, especially since the injury gods seldom give teams 2 good years in a row.
Not sure any Knick has announced himself quite the way Mitch did in SL. His athleticism was so otherworldly it was quite notable.
Would love it if anyone could repeat that impression. Why not Dink.
I do actually think Summer League can matter. You can tell a lot more about a basketball player in a small sample than someone in any other major sport, even against that kind of competition. 5 games of stats is not nothing.
I know it sounds stupid but a lot of times the red flag that gets raised is very meaningful. I remember Anthony Bennett absolutely sucking in SL – he shot like 35% or something and it was absolutely a harbinger.
I expect Flagg to be very very good though. All Star for sure by year 3. He should come back strong in next game.
As for Kolek, not sure he will ever be able to defend enough. But I love him.
Owen, I think playing terribly in summer league is much more of a tell than playing well. Again, I point to Ant Rand, Kevin Knox, etc. It’s such a chaotic style of play that some guys can do things they’ll never be able to against real competition playing real systems. But on the other hand, if you just look like you don’t belong in summer league — particularly if you’re not a teenager and/or it’s not your first SL — that’s a big red flag.
I’d be the most excited about Dadiet but I think Kolek is the most important one.
I want to see Dadiet drive a few times more than I want to see him shoot well. The shooting will most likely come around, but there’s a potential (but unlikely) ceiling where he can do more than shoot 3s.
McCullar would have to shoot a lot from outside for me to be happy. Shooting a little bit in SL wouldn’t mean that much. If he could shoot and stay healthy, he’d have been a 1st round pick.
Dotson was a cromulent player for several years in the NBA, which is what you’re trying to find in SL, especially from a 2nd rd draft pick.
I don’t think SL stats matter much, more interested in things like footwork, iso defense, athleticism, motor, toughness, b-ball IQ, etc.
Guys are hyped, nervous, either over-or under-aggressive, spacing is terrible, sets are sloppy, fouls are plentiful…they’re just glorified pickup games. But sometimes you can see some little things that either confirm or challenge preconceptions.
Don’t forget 2x Summer League MVP Nate Robinson!
Nate was a real NBA player! Limited due to his height, but carved out a perfectly fine career as a microwave guy.
If you are a #1 pick and don’t rip shit up fine. If you are actively bad I am going to raise an eyebrow. So yeah, I guess I agree with you Alan.
And yeah, the fact Nate shoved absolutely told you there was something there.
I don’t know, the narrative starts somewhere and sometimes summer league is a part of it.
Sinner- Djokovic quite a treat on a random Friday
I think it’s easier to find negatives in summer league than positives.
If the player looks good you can’t be sure if he’s really good or he just looks good relative to other young experienced kids and it won’t hold up against NBA athletes and players.
If a player is getting beat, can’t create his own shot like he did in college and generally looks overmatched in summer league, that’s a problem.
About the only thing I’d be willing to easily forgive is if he’s getting good shots but they aren’t falling. If you have been a good shooter all along, I’m not going to worry about a few games where open looks didn’t fall.
I was pretty skeptical of Kristaps until I saw him in SL and could see how fucking tall he was and that he moved okay for a guy that huge. Certainly didn’t suggest he was going to be good but it gave you a sense that he could be
I won’t draw any conclusions if Dadiet stinks in summer league. Next summer is the one where I want to see something positive from him.
But I think Kolek needs to look good. If he can’t play spot minutes at age 24 it’s hard to justify keeping him on the roster instead of Shamet or Wright.
Dadiet is probably going to get significant reps from preseason to December no matter what. Not worried at all about how he shows in SL.
my current pre-game go to: talk a lot a shit (not exactly like with your brother though, that stuff gets way overheated), but just talk a lot and have fun…
thought summer knox was overhyped even then. summer mitch was something i’ve never seen in basketball before. he had a foot fully in the paint on the catch and blocked a corner three. he finished a lob that had the exact trajectory of the ref flipping the ball to a free
throw shooter. i thought we had stumbled
on bo jackson with jokes.
Also, Kolek is currently our only non-Brunson PG. Clarkson or Deuce can be a facsimile, but it’d be nice to have a 2nd viable PG.
It wasn’t like Summer Knox looked particularly great at any aspect of the game. He was just playing with a level of abandon and confidence that served him well in that environment. Whereas with Mitch, you could very easily see ways in which he could impact real games.
I have more confidence on Kolek breaking down defenses, using the Nash dribble and throwing passes right in the pocket to the rest of the Knicks than I do of them making the shot and crediting him with the assist.
If Djoker wins this after spotting Sinner two sets he truly is the GOAT
If that happens, Sinner is going to need some psychiatric help to recover. Twice in such a short period of time would be too much.
And yeah, here is the Mitch summer league package. He was dominant although as I recall he also fouled way too much.
The block PT mentioned is at 2:40. There is another one at4 minutes.
He has about 35 putback dunks and alley oops. It’s kind of crazy but makes perfect sense given what he showed later.
https://youtu.be/uss5EPh3q04?si=6PRYvze1dIekc2GL
For me, at least, his career has been somewhat of a disappointment compared to the euphoria of that performance. His game never developed the way I hoped that it would and the injuries have impacted pretty much every year. Still a great pick, though!
I do remember thinking Anthony Randolph was a can’t-miss prospect after one summer league. At that time, there just weren’t a lot of 6’11” guys who could move like that with a decent shooting form. But alas…
I don’t expect much from Kolek in these games because they are so disjointed but would like to see him throw a bunch of lobs, do some things in the paint, and defend on an island a bit. The season just ended six weeks ago so what he does in the next 3 months is way more important.
What I really am interested in is whether Nnaji or Diawara look good out there if they are on the floor with Kolek.
Randolph had two major issues: low b-ball iq and no right hand. That kind of stuff doesn’t matter in SL.
I remember being thrilled when we picked him up in the David Lee trade, and by the time we were done with preseason, I was pretty much out on him.
hi early bird…I had a post from yesterday I never got around to finishing…reference you being on the fence about clarkson…
my question really was: how confident are you now in the Knick front office?
and does that sway your feeling on clarkson?
That’s a very good question, Geo, i’m curious too. One of the reasons i’ve been more silent lately is that i have less time, but the trust in the FO also makes me not think too much about this, they do the thinking and our plan to get better and better is going very well. Although this offseason we got better just because we didn’t got worse, as some of our opponents did.
https://x.com/cybersoze35/status/1943750052473974851
very very cool cyber 😊
Cyber, that is very cool indeed!
I think our FO is pretty good, but definitely not great. The Bridges trade is the kind that great FOs never make, so that really tipped the scale for me. But by far the best of this century, so there’s that!
Favorite. Cake. Ever.
As to trust, I dunno geo, not really but hey, that’s what we got! One move at a time!
I lost a lot of confidence in them with the Mikal trade. Clarkson won’t move the needle too much on my opinion of the FO.
I’d like to think I’d be skeptical of any player past 30 with declining numbers, regardless of FO. If anything it’s more a bias against high-usage, low-efficiency players.
In a vacuum Clarkson might be a good signing, but we have no proven 3rd PG and we can’t sign another vet min player if Clarkson flames out. Unless Kolek is great or we roster another PG with our last vet min slot, then we could have a big problem.
EB I understand your (and others) concerns regarding Clarkson but there are several reasons why I think they are somewhat overblown, even if Clarkson is not as good as I hope, or just bad.
First, I believe that Mike Brown is less stubborn and more creative, and will find ways to make Deuce and Kolek fill that backup role well.
Second, if necessary, a trade can be made to address that issue. Even one involving Clarkson himself. You might have to sweeten it by throwing in a second, but if all you are worried about is that we wasted a vets min spot on a non-pg, I’m pretty sure you can get a Delon or Cam level PG at the drop of a second round hat.
Finally, as you noted, there is still that last vets min spot.
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