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65 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.14)”
Ricardo Fois, our new member of Brown’s staff, sounds pretty good.
I skipped the game. Tell me more about McCullar playing well and Kolek seeming to play poorly based on the box score.
I’ll also take observations on our other draftees or Nnaji.
The box score isn’t lying. Kolek shot terribly. I think he’s better than he showed, but man. There must must be something about the summer league team coaching and organization that’s making it difficult for him. Maybe he’s been ordered make all his decisions within a half second and he’s not used to it yet. But that’s just speculation.
McCullar, on the other hand did well, made successful drives to the basket and earned a lot of foul shots.
Diawara is really quick for a big man and this caused problems for the Celtics. His good plus minus was no accident.
Hukporti was fine. He did what he was supposed to do, rebounds and such, and wasn’t a worry at all.
kolek is having the same somewhat surprising problem he had last year in the league (but not so much in the summer), and it’s not defense (which has been pretty decent). he cannot handle ball pressure sufficiently well for his archetype. a defender hawks him and they get into his body, and often either turn him or actually get to the ball. he sort of looks like he should be able to do what mark price or scott skiles could do when you tried them, but as of yet, he can’t. his decisions and vision and craft are of course still there, but this is a red line condition for him. the shot is also not falling from anywhere, but whatever; it’s really about the difficulty getting to his spots under pressure.
mccullar is smart and uses his merely good length incredibly well, sort of how landry fields did. he’s like scott foster, always extending. it’s nice that he’s been willing to launch some non-obvious 3s; shooting form has looked so-so.
Dadiet didn’t do as well as last game but he left the game with foot pain and that may have affected his shot.
I didn’t watch but it does sound like Frankie Smokes in his first SL. He just couldn’t handle ball pressure with that high dribble.
overall huk has impressed the most in tiny sample size: 55.6 fg% 15.3 reb/36 (6.8 orb/8.5 drb) 4.2 blk/36 .599 ts% .556 efg% 21.0 trb% (17.0 orb%/25.9 drb%) 102.0 drtg
Eye test warning, but I tend to agree with ptmilo, Kolek’s being pressured full-court much like Jalen was last season, so he’s spending all his energy just getting to the fore court, and it also seems like the defender is waiting for his spin away from pressure and they keep poking the ball out when he does that.
But the part that is grinding my gears is the bad passing. Very little good passing, and a lot of ‘Here, you take it’ to someone else at the three point line that is anticipated and stolen.
Wow, you really slayed the straw man, Noble.
I think my argument was pretty clear, and it’s not “Leon isn’t a good NBA executive.” It’s that the superiority of other front offices is the reason we’re losing in the playoffs.
The most critical matchup in Knicks vs Pacers the last two years hasn’t been Brunson vs Halliburton or even Thibs vs Carlisle. We lost to the Pacers two years in a row bc Kevin Pritchard has done more with his draft picks than Leon Rose. (And he’s had far less to work with.)
One guy turns the 31st pick into Andrew Nembhardt while other guy sells it for a dime so he can fit some bloated contracts in under the apron. One guy uses Obi Toppin as a quality 7th man while the other guy gives him away for peanuts as a favor to his agent. Hell even if we had Quentin Grimes off the bench we might have won the last two years. The margin is that small, and these are the mistakes that put us on the short end of it.
This isn’t some faulty doorknob in an otherwise great job. This is the biggest reason we’ve been eliminated two years in a row. Thibs took the fall but Leon’s the one who fucked up.
Macri’s fill-in newsletter, “Knicks Off and Sputtering.” It’s Summer League. The rule is you can’t complain about wins in Summer League (you also can’t brag about wins in Summer League, either).
Kolek having trouble handling the ball under pressure is the sort of thing you can complain about in SL. If he misses a bunch of 3s thats not that troubling
I don’t agree that Kolek is losing to the pressure. It is slowing him down but ha always gets over the half court line. I think it’s more likely he’s trying to make decisions too fast once he’s over the half court line.
btw dae dae grant has looked much better than kolek in these two games low sample size notwithstanding i do not think he actually is overall better than kolek but still someone maybe worth keeping an eye on
Knicks Fan, agree and disagree. He’s not failing at the pressure, but I have to believe it is actually helping to lead to bad decisions, as you suggest. It’s both annoying to be picked at for eight long seconds, plus the realization that time is slipping away and you need to get your teammates into it can lead to ill-timed passes or not clocking where the defense is.
And while dred is right that shooting is not a huge concern in Summer League, I’d probably feel a bit better if he weren’t 5-24 (0-11 from three…).
hey Director, happy monday to you sir…
amazing post yesterday that really hit hard with its timing…yep, your post was right on time, and relatable…
thought about my response to cyber when he recently asked about this new romance aspect in my life (close and dear friend moved back out to california last year)…
in the post responded with some kind of mix of mister spock and joe friday – basically saying love was simply a part of a successful survival strategy…yeah, not such an inspiring notion…
over the last year or so during each trip to see my friend – inevitably some early saturday morning while I’m still laying in bed relaxing my friend will return from running an early morning errand and initiate some serious relationship conversation…like a grievances session – all i can usually think of is: what the fuck is happening right now, and why aren’t we either cuddling or having sex instead of this shit?…
feels like being ambushed, sucks to have to get so “real” so early…honestly it’s tough to have to have those sensitive relationship discussions at any time…
I have a pretty critical mind, that’s pretty paranoid, so it’s very easy for me to get slighted, I usually just don’t say nothing about it…won’t forget about it, but won’t really bring it up…
this saturday was really one of the first times I was able to respond effectively to most behavioral accusations (at least that’s how I take them)…and share some of my own concerns…
although the process is painful, like having some therapy session in bed, the main reason the relationship continues to strengthen and improve – is because of my partner’s willingness to have tough conversations…
all that to say Director – i hope you find the opportunity to share your perspective with your partner…express how their behavior affected you…
and thanks again for being brave and sharing some personal stuff, that’s very much a part of many of our lives…
oh yeah, congratulations on nearly ( 😊 ) finishing up your magnificent man cave…
what’s your favorite feature in your basement?
.
Mike Brown’s notion of play faster may be tough for Tyler to adjust to…jalen may also run in to some difficulties trying to execute that way…
they both seem like half court, take some time to survey the situation offense initiators…
I actually wasn’t responding to any particular argument, including yours. Just weighing in on the Leon discourse generally, which of course has included some posters making the case that he is affirmatively bad at his job. Anyway…
I don’t think Leon is the best executive in the league. You could probably make a case for as few as 2-3 or as many as 9-10 being better. But instead of litigating those details, I’ll just repeat my implied question: if he keeps getting his lunch eaten by all these other GMs, why do we have the 2nd or 3rd best odds to win the championship next year?
Of course that is in some ways an oversimplification, but again, it is also a very, very difficult thing to accomplish in the NBA such that I don’t think a sucker GM could pull it off.
Watched a portion of SL yesterday and Kolek looked like he can’t handle the pressure. Similar to what Indy did to Brunson, put someone faster and longer to body him up and it disrupts what he does well. And similar to what happened with Thibs in Indy, the offense just caved without their PG leading the charge. It was ugly for most of the parts I watched.
McC had a bunch of “energy points” and the Knicks were scoring off of steals and such, but their half-court offense seemed nonexistent.
Kolek’s shooting has been bad this SL, last SL, in the g-league, and in the NBA. It’s still not a lot of minutes overall, but it might be enough. His 2p% has stunk at all those stops too.
Maybe someone wants to take him through a trade into cap space so we can sign McCullar to a big league deal.
Nnaji left the game with back tightness. He’s really damn athletic. He looks jacked. Still only has 1 rebound in SL. It’s hard to say much because he hasn’t shown much. If he’s healthy, I’m hoping Huk sits the last 2 games and Nnaji gets more minutes.
The team just looks better with Diawara on the floor. He seems to understand the game pretty well, which surprised me. He gets beat on defense sometimes, but that might be a fixable footwork thing.
Just got back from my younger daughter’s final dance competition in Orlando… Those things feel like AAU for girls, just a brutal schedule… Still, it was good to be able to spend some time with her before she goes off to college… Good luck with the relationship Geo… I find I have to spend time preparing for those tough conversations with my girlfriend, she certainly does… In my opinion, Kolek is obviously not athletic enough for the NBA, that’s not going to change… I’d use those last 2 roster spots on Wright and Diawara, who has enough size and athleticism to at least be an emergency big in the Precious mold… Hubert, we lost to Indiana 2 years ago because of injuries, not talent…
I can’t get too bent out of shape about Kolek’s summer league so far. The pressure he is facing is only gonna be a thing if players are allowed 10 fouls. The passing will probably improve when he’s playing with guys he can depend on to create space and get to spots. He’s probably doing some serious weight-training (as he should) and that might screw up his shot for a while. He looks very strong out there and isn’t getting pushed around, just beaten up by guys who aren’t worried about foul calls.
ha, I’m gonna be laughing about that for awhile…
wait, what’s happening – no one told me this was gonna be a team air your grievances meeting – i didn’t get a chance to prepare any notes 😱
OTOH I’m not really impressed by McCullar. The poor man’s Josh Hart thing seems to be his ceiling for now…and we don’t really need that, nor is it all that hard to find. I don’t see much promise in the shot becoming dependable.
The guy I find the most intriguing is Diawara. The guy just turned 20 and has incredible measurables. He can handle the ball a bit and looks to have good court vision and passing ability. He can also finish straight line drives to the rim with both hands.
The shot is funky and he has a long way to go with footwork and all the little positioning things a pro has to learn, but I think stashing him would be a waste. Bring him over and let him learn the NBA game. I don’t see anyone else worthy of that 14th roster spot. Nnaji is just too raw and clearly can only play one position. Do with him what we did with Hukporti last year.
We’ll see what happens with Kolek, but right now I don’t feel particulartly comfortable going into the regular season without another legitimate PG.
Geo, I’m sure your lady friend spends her time out running or whatever thinking about what she’s going to say, then she comes back, locked and loaded…I have come up with my own stock Thibs style “the relationship tells you what to do” answers when certain topics come up… Kolek looks too slow on both sides of the ball to me… McCullar is a poor man’s Hart, but I would rather give those minutes to Dadiet. I think he has the higher upside…
Your reading comprehension is too good to make these kinds of misrepresentations.
The point is consistently made by several people here that Leon’s constant waste of assets isn’t a big deal.
My position is that it’s the primary the reason we’ve come up short the last two years, and likely will be the reason we continue to.
If you disagree with me, the counterargument isn’t “Leon’s good.” The counterargument is that it didn’t matter that the Pacers had Andrew Nembhart, Obi Toppin, Ben Mathurin, and Ben Sheppard while we had nothing but a pile of ashes to show for similar assets.
From the limited minutes I’ve seen, he can only go to his strong hand but can’t turn the corner, and then sends a pass to the top of the key, which gets picked off. Seems to happen a lot.
I don’t agree that Kolek is losing to the pressure. It is slowing him down but ha always gets over the half court line.
imagine the friendliest possible tone when reading, ‘you’d have to be blind.’ watching on a plane with the guy in front of me apparently conversing with his own audiobook, i can still recall someone wong absolutely punishing him. down 11-4 in the first he’s forced to pick up his dribble just over the half court line and bounces a desperate pass to dadiet who was not looking and was in fact running away from the ball and hence did not come close to receiving it. soon after he struggles to get into a simple dho to i think that luckyducky slovenian, although he does barely get it done. after that he stopped having trouble because they completely went away from having kolek bring it up for the rest of his first stint.
in q2, maybe 3min left, wong just completely swiped it from him in the back court. i thought maybe this should have been a foul but it was also something you rarely see, because wong came totally across his body right in front of him and just snatched his lefty dribble. after another play where he brought huk all the way to halfcourt to screen wong, they again gave up and switched to mccullar bringing it up.
in the third i counted at least three times he picked up his dribble 40 ft or more out to pressure. on of them resulted in that crazy pass he launched like an elon ketamine tweet that did, impressively, find its mark in dadiet’s waiting hands, about a continent away. this is also what surprised me last year when i went in absurdly pro-kolek after summer league. he got redirected or frozen by single player pressure far too easily for who he needs to be in an offense.
Speaking of slaying straw man, has anyone here argued that Leon is better than Prichard?
Nope.
Or that Thibs is better than Carlisle?
Nope.
But that fucking missing handle….
Well at least Kolek didn’t have the worst shooting performance in Vegas yesterday….
Two years ago, everyone was injured so give me break.
Last year was just a measuring stick year and the team outperformed ALL expectations. No one expected NY to beat Boston. Leon built the team to do just that and the players did it in their first try.
2025-26 is the first year where the expectations are NBA Finals or bust and we have a window of two more years after this. If at the end of three years, – we don’t get to the finals or come within a game or two to the championship, then you can say that these small mistakes where the difference. Until then, just chill, enjoy the ride an root for our talent to maximize it’s blossom and come together every spring.
I’m thinking might have a great sophmore season now that he completely shit the bed in Vegas. It’s a Knicksian thing to do.
My favorite SL memory was Nate Robinson’s MVP season.
Speaking for myself, I have criticized Leon for a number of transactions or lack thereof and would never say any particular bad move “didn’t matter.”
There’s also some cherry picking going on here, though, as well as some obfuscation of what certain transactions actually entailed.
-Nembhard was a good 31st pick, not sure if he blows away the value Leon got on the 32nd pick in the 2021 draft (Rokas and Deuce)
-I think two seconds is more or less a vindicated return for a player of Obi’s caliber given other trades that have happened since that one, and that it was smart to open up the full MLE to sign Donte DiVincenzo
-Mathurin was certainly a better lottery pick than the only one Leon has ever had (Obi), but then again, Leon got outstanding value out of Quickley at #25, almost certainly more than Mathurin returned at #6
-I don’t see a ton of evidence that Sheppard is a much better use of a roster spot than someone like Shamet, as of now
And we’d have still won that series if Kevin Pritchard had pulled a Leon with the 31st pick instead of using it on Andrew Nembhart.
Getting back to McCullar, how much of what he did yesterday looked translatable to real games, versus his energy and hustle just being useful within the chaotic context of summer league? (And particularly in the context of a summer league roster that, based on your descriptions, seems unable to set up anything resembling an organized offense?)
It does blow away what we currently have to show for 8th & 33rd picks in ’20 and the 19th & 21st picks in ’21… which is absolutely nothing.
And the return on the 24th, 25th, 31st, and 38th picks in ’24 ain’t looking so good, either.
I think those failures have been very consequential. Others say “that’s the stupidest non-E argument in the history of the board.”
Thanks Geo, appreciate you sharing. So far my favorite parts are the gym and sound system. I get to teach my 16yr old son to lift weights and spend time together while exposing him to 90s and 2000s hip hop and R&B which he’s already starting to appreciate. He, of course, won’t admit it but I watch his lips move…
Married for 21yrs here, – so I have painfully learned to dicipline myself and not engage her when she makes these type of comments. It’s very rarely I let it get to me. She’s a perfectionist and readily criticizes her own work but lacks awarenes & sensitivity when she uncosciously and voluntarily does it to others. Poor kids get it with their academics. lol..that’s another story.
Is it too early to give up on Kolek? I don’t think so but also…
Is it smart to rely on him as the backup point guard? Absolutely.
I’m okay with Kolek being the 3rd PG and for him to see 15 minutes a week on the floor but that veteran minimum contract needs to go to more potent PG.
And then what, we’d get swept by Boston in the next round. We were not a contender two years ago. Just give me a break with this take. It was still a work in process two years ago.
It took Leon 5 yrs to get to the place where the team enters a season as the favorite to win the conference. That’s literaly the definition of a legit contender.
We know you or a GM with your genius could have done it in what, 2 or 3yrs? – Didn’t have to take this long, if he did everything perfect, right?
Just gonna chime in on Leon as a GM.
He’s the best GM for this team. Period. I love his moves. I love how he rebuilt the team from garbage.
But much more important than that, I love how he deals with the media in this media cesspool. It’s perfect and nobody’s going to convince me that anyone will do better there. And this is perhaps the most important attribute. And nobody else has proved to be able to succeed in that regard he’s the only one I trust.
Director, I think you’re giving Leon Rose a little too much credit for the ruptured achilles tendons of Jayson Tatum & Tyrese Halliburton.
And btw the Cavs are the favorites to win the East: https://www.espn.com/nba/futures/_/group/conference
Tell us more!
that’s so awesome Director…working out together and chillin’ with tunes…
just been the last handful of years that I woke up to the whole: legacy thru progeny…
caught daughter quietly reciting the serenity prayer under her breath a while back…surprised me in the moment, asked her what she was doing, told me it was something she remembered from when she was a kid, and it helps her when she’s stressed…greatly altered my perspective on the dad stuff…
you know, just maybe these crumb snatchers may be of use to me when they’re grown 😊
I hadn’t looked in a while and had forgotten just how old Kolek is – he’ll turn 25 during the upcoming season. It’s going to start getting late early for him if things don’t turn around.
I’ve only watched a bit of summer league play not sure if i can do it to myself to watch more…yep magic 8 ball says not very likely…
so in the past it has felt like we’ve hung on to “busts” longer…interested to see how much and what pace we cycle young talent…
a point guard’s disregard for ball safety is bad…are we about ready already to kick kolek to the curb…
interesting that more value these days is going in to young players with defensive skills being their best attribute/way of getting on court…
wonder if huk could be that guy for us…
1. Because they’re in by far the worst of the two conferences.
2. Because two would-be conference rivals, one of whom knocked the Knicks out this year, have lost their best player to Achilles tears.
3. Because he’s fast forwarded a shit-ton of his assets.
4. (less so, and it’s kind of related to 3) Because he doesn’t care if his team winds up in purgatory.
He’s not “affirmatively bad.” He’s basically a bit below replacement level plus the delta between the leagues’ opinion of Brunson and what Brunson has turned out to be. Net-net, that takes him a bit above replacement level, but that’s mostly luck. He didn’t sign Brunson because he, unlike the rest of the league, “saw the potential,” or any such claptrap; he signed him because he was in-network because he’d known his family for 30 years and his father was one of his first clients.
He also has some major whiffs on his record, the primary one being Jalen Williams for $9 million in cap space. He was taken to the cleaners in every dimension by a better GM in that deal.
Add to that the bent transactions where he plays both sides rather than just the Knick side and it’s basically sub-replacement level. Not “affirmatively bad.”
We never drafted Jalen Williams. OKC drafted Jalen Williams. We did not trade Jalen Williams, we did not trade the pick OKC used to draft Jalen Williams.
I’m out on Kolek. He’s not fast or shifty enough to beat anyone off the dribble. He can’t shoot or defend. He’s got excellent court vision and he’s a good passer, but that’s not nearly enough to take any minutes from Deuce or Clarkson. If at all possible, I’d rather have Rokas on the roster.
Jalen Johnson fell in our laps, but we still didn’t take him. That was Leon’s second biggest whiff. The biggest was passing on Haliburton. Other than that, I think he has been a perfectly cromulent executive.
“My position is that it’s the primary the reason we’ve come up short the last two years,”
So now we know your exact position in your very own words.
Came up short two years ago? Came up short last year? Check the odds at the beginning of each of those seasons. Or the subjective take of the majority of the board here including you. We exceeded expectations; opposite of coming up short. Unless you change the definition to something else better to suit your narrative.
The strawman argument, which you love to cite, is now firmly in your court.
“He wouldn’t have drafted him anyway” has always been an indictment, not a defense.
“He didn’t sign Brunson because he, unlike the rest of the league, “saw the potential,” or any such claptrap; he signed him because he was in-network because he’d known his family for 30 years and his father was one of his first clients.”
Got it. He signs someone who he has seen develop for his whole basketball life for 20% more than anyone else would, trading valuable assets to be able to do so, because he liked the family and didn’t see the potential.
In the real world the Thunder drafted Ousmane Dieng with the pick we traded them.
Pritchard drafted Goga Bitadze 18th just to waive him before he became a very useful player for Orlando.
He drafted Duarte at 13, who he later traded for two 2nds.
He drafted TJ Leaf 18th and then traded him along with a 2nd for Jalen Lecque who they waived 4 months later.
He’s waived around half of his 2nd round picks while on their first contracts based on what I can see from the bk-ref page of IND draft picks, not counting the ones that are listed as traded.
He sold another 2nd round pick just for cash.
Lil’ Penny, Knicks were up on Brad Steven’s dynasty level Celtics 3:1 with a healthy Jason Tatum & Mikal outplaying Brown. Leon built the team to specifically beat them. Based on roster talent no one expected NY to loose to Indiana. Every single Knicks player knew Knicks were the better team and a few cowards blamed Thibs for missing the chance to go to the NBA finals. Leon must be sick to his stomach to fire a lifelong friend but it needed to be done. TBD on how that works out but he has the guts to do what he thinks is right.
Which ended up going to us for Obi btw.
It seems like he whiffed on Jarace Walker, too.
The guy isn’t perfect but the point remains: we didn’t lose to the Pacers two years in a row bc Thibs got outcoached by Rick Carlisle. We lost to them because Pritchard has turned the same assets Leon consistently turns to dust into quality players.
It seems like a pertinent topic as we watch a summer league roster that looks entirely devoid of promising NBA players despite the fact that we had four draft picks last year in a spot of the draft where a bunch of decent looking role players were taken.
that is some poetic stuff right there E…a bit below…hahahahaha…
Jaylen Brown played in the playoff series against the Knicks with a shredded knee.
Well, now that someone has called the GM of a team with the 2nd or 3rd best odds to win the finals “below replacement level,” I think I have beat the straw man allegations.
Can you imagine what absolute dunce of a GM would take a draft pick that should’ve been Jalen Johnson and turned it into two 2nd round picks? Pritchard sucks!
It does seem prescient now, Noble.
Anyone else notice how close Hubert is to hubris?
I’m now convinced that Hubert is Isiah Thomas and E is Phil Jackson. It’s the only possible explanation for the endless, tone-deaf repetition of the same exact fucking argument every goddamn day.
No one’s called his performance below replacement level.
The actual definition of “replacement level” is “affirmatively bad.” That would make “sub-replacement level” is “worse than affirmatively bad.”
Leon is probably a top-10 GM in the league by any reasonable standard, maybe even top-5. He took over a team with a roster that was projected to have the lowest win total and has built it into whatever you want to fairly characterize this team as without once going into the second apron, and without a single hit in the lottery, or a surprise superstar anywhere else in the draft (although maybe Diawara is that guy? One can hope!).
Since Leon got here and inherited that boatload of shit…and didn’t tank, not once, here’s how some of his high-profile competitors have done:
Masai Ujiri: shit
Daryl Morey: shit
Danny Ainge: shit
Then there’s guys like Pat Riley (or whoever) and James Jones and Nico Harrison who topped out at an unlikely finals appearance and have basically blown it up or are about to. Then there’s Sean Marks, who had Durant, Kyrie and Harden and got nowhere. Travis Schlenk got to the conference finals and then “stole” E’s hearthrob DeJounte Murray after fleecing us for Cam Reddish (oh wait, all it cost us was ashes, never mind!) But don’t worry, Atlanta is gonna get there any day now. Still waiting on Tim Connoly in Minny. Or Lawrence Frank with the Clippers. Or Zacn Kleiman with the Grizz. Or Karsinovas with the Bulls. All of these teams had as much or more to work with at some point than Leon did when he took over the team.
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