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2025-10-07 Post

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192 replies on “2025-10-07 Post”

Exciting! But I understand why the Bucks aren’t jumping at a disappointed KAT and no picks.

Milwaukee would probably have to really stink this year for them to consider moving Giannis. But if they do stink, he does clamor, and they actually want to honor his demand to play in NY, here is an alternative to KAT-for-Giannis that would seem to work (pending some arcane apron rule I don’t know yet):

Giannis – $54.1
Trent – $3.7
Thanasis – $2.3
Total – $60.1

Mitch – $12.9
Mikal – $24.9
Hart – $19.5
Dadiet – $2.8
Total – $60.1

Plus every swap right and pick that Leon didn’t already give away for Mikal Bridges.

IMO we’d have to do something like that to make it worth it. Just getting Giannis for KAT essentially renders Mitch and Hart unplayable. You’d have to spin separate deals sending both of them out for better complementary players, and that seems hard to pull off (but not impossible).

If we somehow have Brunson, OG, Giannis, KAT, we’re golden. But if we have to give up OG or KAT we probably still can’t win.

Well, glad I got a Giannis Greek national team jersey while I was over there post-bar exam. Might come in handy.

please g-d not another blockbuster trade on the eve of the season opener last seasons kat trade was on october 2 so at least weve already made it past that milestone

The opportunity costs of trades remain more painful than the actual costs of trades. Sigh.

Quick football post:

I’m glad the Chiefs are hopefully becoming the Chefs again because I just never really liked that group… then this post made me realize why.

Mahomes throws to a player who choked his girlfriend, and then KC scored a td by a running back who is a multiple time domestic abuser. Followed by the PAT by their openly Christian Nationalist, misogynist kicker. While they look forward to the return of their WR who tried to kill a family with his car. This is Chiefs football.

I don’t care much for the Eagles either, so I hope another team emerges… maybe the Bills or the Lions? Hard to tell who’s for real at this stage.

Pretty funny (sic) post, ess-dog, until you realize that it is likely that with a bit of digging most NFL teams could be described similarly. What happens when you put men in an incredibly violent, super-high-pressure, steroid-filled, rage-positive, testosterone-only environment since childhood.

As they say, nothing good will come of it. Outside of some pretty awesome highlight plays…

I don’t really see a trade for Giannis that makes sense for both teams. That seemed to be the case this summer.

The Knicks’ lack of tradeable first rounders is probably a dealbreaker in and of itself. To account for that deficit, the pot would have to be that much sweeter, decimating our depth.

It’s not gonna happen until this coming offseason when we have a couple of picks to trade, if at all. And by then, some other team will have a much better offer on the table, and unless/until it becomes public that Giannis insists on NY and only NY, I’m not holding my breath.

Mahomes throws to a player who choked his girlfriend, and then KC scored a td by a running back who is a multiple time domestic abuser. Followed by the PAT by their openly Christian Nationalist, misogynist kicker. While they look forward to the return of their WR who tried to kill a family with his car. This is Chiefs football.

Who wrote this?

Who wrote this?

lol Pam Bondi did, what do you care, Bob? (Edit: sorry Bob, maybe you’re thinking a poster here posted it, but I grabbed it off Instagram.)

But yes, Raven, I know it’s the nature of the sport, but all I want is a shred of likability.

As for Giannis, if we wanted to do a trade after this year, we could trade Deuce for a 1st in 2031 and then we could trade them our 2031 and 2033 firsts. At that point, I’d include OG in a trade if they still wanted him. I guess it depends on if they’d prefer a replacement star (KAT) or the youngest group possible (OG, Mitch, Daddyay?)

If the Knicks and Giannis want each other still, he’ll be a Knick. For Giannis, everyone but Brunson and Anunoby should be available. While I’d hate to lose Bridges, Hart, Mitch, and Deuce- this would be a no trainer. I would try whatever I can to keep Mitch, but we can survive with the young centers we have if Giannis is in the lineup.

By next summer Milwaukee will have very little leverage cause Giannis could be a free agent in 2027.

i do know that giannis is all-world but has anyone else noticed that he has only played as many as 70 games exactly one time over his past six seasons?

i just dont think its an idea that would end well for us

2027-28 is a looooong time from now. Giannis will be turning 33 and would have to opt out of $62M. The Bucks could just dump him for picks and expiring salary as a rental. Giannis could also change his mind about NY and be fine with a trade to an up-and-coming team like Detroit or Houston or San Antonio. There will very likely be good teams with salaries to dump and more/better picks to offer than Leon can.

ol Pam Bondi did, what do you care, Bob? (Edit: sorry Bob, maybe you’re thinking a poster here posted it, but I grabbed it off Instagram.)

I was always taught to consider the biases of the examiner when evaluating things. That doesn’t mean the rantings of a madman cannot be true. I see it was written by some rando atention whore (he was subsequently reveling in the fact his missive went viral).

I was also interested why he didn’t include the awful shit Andy Reid’s sons did while under his employ.

I would do that deal for Giannis, no issues.

Although he is getting up there. But I think he is going to be good for five more years.

While the trade I cited doesn’t seem great for Milwaukee, it’s interesting if those guys can all be spun out for better assets.

I think a healthy Mitch, for instance, could yield the same haul LA offered for Mark Williams (Knecht, a ‘31 first, and a swap). If so, that would make now a better time for us than this summer.

Bridges would be a good target for Golden State, potentially yielding something like Kuminga and 1-2 firsts.

I have no idea what Hart could yield.

It’s still not enough for Giannis if the bidding is open. But if it’s just us…

Yeah, I don’t see it for them either, without the kind of draft sweetener we can’t provide. But Giannis may be able to dictate where he goes, so maybe they will have to do it….

A boy can dream

Mitch is on an expiring deal, so unless it’s a sign-and-trade, I can’t see another team giving up very much of value for him. Not sure how a sign-and-trade would even work given our cap situation and lack of leverage.

Mikal can’t be traded until pretty close to the deadline, so obviously nothing can happen involving him until we get a large sample of his play under Brown and with this group in the books. His trade value is very much dependent on how he plays, and if it’s not much improved from last year, his contract extension makes him a negative asset that would be at best neutral in a trade and probably worse. No one is giving up two 1sts and a good young player for him.

No one is giving up two 1sts and a good young player for him *unless he plays significantly better.*

I think a better trade idea from Milwaukee’s perspective is Giannis for OG, Mitch, and Deuce plus whatever else we can include e.g Dadiet can thrown in plus pick swaps and 2nds. This seems to work in the Spotrac trade machine.

The Knicks would lose some perimeter shooting but still have Brunson, Mikal, KAT, Yabu, Clarkson, and one or more of Brogdon, Shamet, and Matthews as shooters.

From the Milwaukee side, we just learned that Deuce is highly valued. Mitch is expiring and not all that redundant with Turner in a twin towers lineup. A front line of Mitch, Turner, and OG is pretty fearsome and you would have a competitive but fungible roster to work through the post-Giannis era.

I don’t think it happens, and am not even sure it’s a good idea for the Knicks, but I think Milwaukee would have to at least consider it unless they are hell-bent on multiple picks.

Milwakee can never get equal value for Giannis. Thats just how life in the NBA works when trading a disgruntled MVP caliber superstar.

He has to demand a trade to NYC and say that he wants to play with KAT and Brunson. At that point, Bucks can choose whomever they want from the current Knicks roster and take whatever picks we have.

It didn’t happen last summer because Giannis didn’t want it to happen.

No one leaves the Lakers, so I doubt they’d care Mitch is expiring since they’d be acquiring his bird rights.

And the Warriors hate Kuminga (at least Kerr does). They’d trade him and a pick for Mikal Bridges tomorrow if they could. In order to get multiple picks, though, Mikal would have to play better than last year.

howdy bob, hope the day goes well for you…

we are all flawed dogs (reference to berkeley breathed’s brilliant and insightful book) to some extent…

thinking about you the other day…in my mind i imagine you as someone whom has taken a philosophical approach to aging…like you’ve done your research and have a pretty good idea about the do’s and dont’s of aging…

was just wondering if this was something you’ve incorporated in to your daily routines…

there are also some specific movements for earlier in the day, I love that slow walking, sanpo, technique they use…

just wondering what you may or may not be doing to keep yourself together and rolling along…

The Lakers can certainly make a strong offer for Mitch if they want to, but there’s a long time between now and when Mikal can be traded, and they have Ayton on a dirt-cheap deal, so a lot would have to happen for them to be willing to offer a similarly strong package that they did for Mark Williams, except with more salary. And while they would hold his Bird rights, LeBron’s status is one year further into the inevitability of his decline/retirement, so burning your last good trade chip on a guy like Mitch who you will probably have to overpay to keep when you can pick up serviceable defensive bigs in the 2nd round seems like an iffy proposition.

In fact, I think the Lakers backed out of the Mark Williams trade because they realized that it was a really dumb idea in the first place, not because of the physical. Burning assets on Mitch when you have Ayton on a team option would seem equally dumb unless Ayton turns out to be a total bust.

If Lebron exits next season and Smart ($4m), Ayton ($8m) and Reeves ($14m) decline their player options, – The Lakers will have a ton (~$90M) of salary flexibility.

Considering they’re out West, it makes perfect sense for them to ride out the season as is and then built a team around Luka with two way 3&D type players and young cheap vertical threats with fresh springs.

Reaves will decline his option, but they’ll want to keep him, which eats up a good chunk of their cap space. And if Smart and/or Ayton play poorly this year, they could well decide to pick up their options.

But, yes, the Lakers are always the big threat.

I know it’s fair game to be discussing trades and stuff but it’s also very disquieting. I know some folks are not convinced that we are there with this team, and that’s fair…I have my concerns, too. And if this a “chance of a lifetime” to get a perennial MVP candidate in his late prime without decimating the team, go for it, of course!

But at the same time, the likelihood of something happening that will significantly improve our chances this year (beyond our already very good chances) and beyond is not good. Leon has already demonstrated that he can be a soft negotiator, and obviously making a huge mistake here would spell doom for the next decade. See: two years ago when folks were drooling over the possibility of trading the kitchen sink for Joel Embiid.

I’m hoping that nothing rash happens until we have a good body of evidence on this core unless it’s an absolute slam dunk.

I hear you Zman and you’re not wrong at all…but there is only like 3-5 players in the world for whom Leon would have to pull the trigger for, – at this time & with this roster. Giannis is one of them.

Leon & Company built a champioship contender twice in the last two years. January Knicks and current roster. I have to believe that he can do it again at the end of this run or if he creates one or two roster holes to fit in Giannis.

We finally have front office competence and this is what that looks like.

Excellent piece on Aaron Judge’s playoffs, which sort of aligns with what I was saying about him.

The author explains how much of Judge’s success during the regular season comes from his ability to crush pitches that are in the heart of the plate…middle-middle in tech-speak…his stats against those pitches are literally off the charts, either first or second on a variety of pitch types in that zone.

However:

Now for the twist: Judge has faced seven pitches in the playoffs that were in the middle-middle zone (one pitch every three plate appearances, so slightly more frequently than the regular season).

So far this postseason, Judge hasn’t put one of those pitches in play. He swung at five — fouled off four and whiffed at another — and took two middle-middle pitches for strikes.

Now the author points out that the sample is so small that one homer would “poke a hole in it” but he sort of emphasizes how much the Yankees need for Judge to “punish mistakes” for them to turn it around. Which won’t be easy, given that the whole world knows this stuff, including the Ray’s pitching staff.

1. I feel much better about this team now that I’ve seen that Mitch is in great shape, know the plan is to start him and we have a slimmed down KAT ready to play PF. The defense will be better and the depth will be better with Hart, Yabu and hopefully Brogdon on the bench.

2. Almost any trade for Giannis makes us a better team, but it makes no sense to trade KAT for him because we’ll need a floor spacing C next to him anyway and we have a very good one.

3. The Bucks will likely want to rebuild with picks. So any trade will probably involve the Knicks trading one or more of OG, Bridges, Hart or Deuce for filler and picks and then sending out “whatever” and the picks. It would be interesting to know what kind of pick value they could get back for those guys.

4. I think the fact that this was supposedly leaked by the Giannis’s camp means he actually wants the trade. So that raises the probability that something gets done at the deadline or at the end of the season.

5. A key to when or if something gets done is whether the Knicks already look like a serious contender (raising or lowering the chances of something being done before the deadline), how good/bad the Bucks look and whether the Knicks can find trade partners to help facilitate a deal. If the Knicks already look like a top 3 team, I’m not so sure they’ll make a move mid season and disrupt that.

I don’t think this noise for clicks. I think Giannis wants out and wants to come to NY, but we’d need to come up with a deal that makes sense for the Bucks without gutting the team.

loved how OBJ came clean on his recent PED suspension: at this point in time i am just too much a man to play professional football with other men…

he needs to temper his manliness before it’s safe, for other folks, for him to get back out there…

I actually don’t think Giannis is someone you have to pull the trigger for right now. Either we fleece the Bucks like I described above or move on. We’re past the point where we can gut the team.

thinking about you the other day…in my mind i imagine you as someone whom has taken a philosophical approach to aging…like you’ve done your research and have a pretty good idea about the do’s and dont’s of aging…

The best two things I ever did health wise was to swear off self medicating 40 years ago and lose 60 pounds 12 years ago.

I realized getting intoxicated in various ways was fun and pleasant, but it was making me lose my focus and caring less about important things than I should have.

Losing weight was simple once I found low carb living. I walk alot and lift relative light weights when I’m in Florida 8 months a year. I watch very little TV other than sports. You might find Outlive: The Art and Science of Longevity by Dr Peter Attia an interesting read.

I think embracing Stoicism is helpful. As Cassius says to Brutus in Julius Carsar, when they are facing their ends… “Of your philosophy you make no use If you give place to accidental evils.”

If you like Peter Attia, I recommend the podcast he released yesterday eviscerating the science RFK Jr used to come to his ludicrous conclusions about Tylenol and Autism.

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i love croutons on my carsar salad i wonder if my friend clarence does too where is that guy i kinda miss him

thanks bob, had a good feeling you had/have a plan for the getting older part of the journey…

it’s funny, was just listening to someone today mention that life wasn’t a journey at all, but rather an experience, like dancing or singing…yeah, had me shaking my head saying “what?”…sort of get it a little bit…

part of the human condition to try to intellectualize, name, structure, and control things…believe and achieve

the whole point really though is to dance, sing, laugh, cry and love…

I’ll check out peter attia, and try to get an understanding of stoicism…how it is implemented…

thanks again bob 😊

i love croutons on my carsar salad i wonder if my friend clarence does too where is that guy i kinda miss him

I knew you fucking liked anchovies. Everybody likes anchovies.

clarence welcome back!!! i hate anchovies ‘do absolutely hate em theyre quite revolting glad to hear from you for sure

I want the Yankees to win but I’ll also be happy if they are humiliated. And so far it looks like the latter is more likely. Just a pathetic play by Jazz there.

Do the Blue Jays have some sort of banging-on-trash-can scheme going? Yankee pitchers haven’t been able to get any of them out since this series started.

If you like Peter Attia, I recommend the podcast he released yesterday eviscerating the science RFK Jr used to come to his ludicrous conclusions about Tylenol and Autism.

It’s in my inbox, I haven’t read it yet. If you are a fan of his, I highly recommend his 5 podcast series with Dr Tom Dayspring on cholesterol on The Drive.

It’s basically 29-2 over the first 3 games, excluding the 7 runs the Yanks scored after they got mercy ruled. No way for the Cashman apologists to pin this on Boone.

I wonder if Wells would still be alive if we were still back in the “block the plate” days…Vlad looked pretty fearsome coming down the line.

I don’t think Jazz gets him even if he relayed immediately, but it looked terrible.

The big yawn after didn’t help.

Bieber’s pitches do not look like they have a ton of bite on them, so the Yanks might get back in this. He doesn’t have a reliable out pitch

my main food issue is consuming too many calories…structuring my food intake between 12pm and 7pm seems to be helping…

still learning, something about that 17 hour fast that helps things…

taking a while for my body to adapt, in my 4th week now…there have been some hungry hungry mornings, oh well…

need to start adding some supplements to try and add some muscle…

the main goal in life being: looking sexy naked…for as long as possible…

Bieber was throwing crud up there. 92 MPH cheese and sloppy slurvy looking breaking balls with poor location.

Have you considered GLP-1 medication, Geo? It’s been a real life changer for many folks.

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hubie, no lie – i take like a handful of pills, every day, day after day, sooooo many days…days and days, years and years, decades and decades…I know my kidneys (and whatever else is in there dealing with all those pills) must hate me…

I hate taking medicine, appreciate what it does, hate it though, maybe just a little less than therapy…maybe…

i’m on to wanting to do that stoicism stuff bob was talking of…manage the mind and body better to use self disciple in self control…

make myself do what I want…

edit: okay, thinking of it, don’t hate all medicine, them valium and xanax are kind of sweet, and that cough syrup with the codeine in it…yeah, those may not be the worst stuff in the world…

If you just want to look sexy, geo, skip the medication. You can be sexy at any weight. But if your weight is really an issue for your health, talk to your doctor about it. It will definitely reduce your caloric intake. And if you let medicine take care of that, you can focus your energy on the other things you’re trying to work on.

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Toronto was the best defensive team in the league in the regular season but are pulling all sorts of rocks in this one. Although the GG caliber catcher Kirk made a nice play there.

trying not to get too hyped about seeing young mister schlittler slanging the rock from the mound tomorrow…

I kind of am though…

Great swing by Judge, that was terrible pitching there.

I’m in Italy so I missed the game, but the article I just read said the pitch was 1.2 feet inside, at 99 mph, and no one (including Judge) has ever got a pitch that far inside and at that speed and hit it for a home in the history of the (recorded) playoffs.

Southern Italy, Max and Farfa, or I would have dropped a line about getting together. And I’m off to Albania tomorrow…quick stop here before moving on.

Southern Italy, Max and Farfa, or I would have dropped a line about getting together.

That’s sad! I’ll be in (mostly) Southern Italy from tomorrow to Sunday

Farfa! I’ll be back in Monopoli for most of Saturday, if you are in the area. Meeting my mom and driving her to Napoli early Sunday.

I’m so excited to see Schlittler pitch again I might even extend my self imposed ban on being the Yankee Pagliacci another 24 hours.

At a minimum, I’m happy we gave Schlittler a chance to grow the legend. He deserves it.

The real winner yesterday was the Crapshoot Theory.

With a 6-1 lead MLB’s top defense starts kicking the ball everywhere, Aaron Judge somehow barrels a 99.7 MPH fastball that was thrown at his face on an 0-2 count, and the TTO-centric Yankees hit for a .345 BABIP and strike out only six times in nine innings.

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The Yankees offense scoring 9 runs last night wasn’t too surprising, earlier in the season at Toronto they were down 8-0 and Judge hit a HR in the 8th to tie the game at 9 before Williams gave up 2 in the bottom of the inning and Yankees lost 11-9.

The surprising part about last night was the bullpen throwing 6 2/3 shutout innings.

Not letting myself get my hopes up too much, because the Yankees have no room for error. That said, they kicked the hell out of the opposing bullpen last night, ahead of what’s supposed to be a Toronto bullpen game. And I think that Fried would be able to start on regular-ish rest if the team can force a Game 5?

I doubt that Brown is a markedly better or more dedicated coach than Thibs, or that his X’s and O’s will lead to more success with everything else being equal, but his vibe is so much more appealing, at least on the surface.

I won’t miss Thibs’ continual bellowing on the sidelines. I won’t miss the long starter minutes and short rotations. I won’t miss the slow pace. I won’t miss the inconsistent leash with young players (say, RJ vs. IQ).

Thibs kind of lost me with the Bridges incident last year….while maybe Mikal should not have spoken about minutes the way he did, for Thibs to both publicly say that they never spoke about it, and to be as dismissive about a respected player having a very logical concern, really rubbed me the wrong way. Brown’s approachability and upbeat candor will be a refreshing change. I think players will respect and appreciate that about him.

But Brown has his warts as well. Maybe the demeanor is different on the surface, but he also rubbed some of his players the wrong way. He kinda lost the locker room in Sacramento and jerked guys around with minutes. Here’s what I would classify as a very disturbing press conference as he was approaching being fired. It makes me wonder what will happen if the Knicks hit a tough stretch, given that the media and fan pressure in NY is just a bit more intense than it was in SAC and CLE. I never heard Thibs publicly throw a player under the bus like Brown did in that clip, even if they deserved it. He might have benched them and ostracized them in private, and give suggestive, passive aggressive answers to pointed questions, but Brown publicly went to war with Fox over a stretch and even if he was “right” on the merits, he ultimately lost the pissing contest. (Ironically, Fox was gone not long thereafter!)

Hopefully he learned not to do that, but it’s definitely a thing to look out for. In that sense, I’m not all that swayed by the happy talk right now.

I would say that the way the pitching is lining up and that both Judge and Stanton are perking up, it’s a 50-50 series right now. These are two very evenly-matched teams, so it would only be fitting to have an epic game 5 decide the series.

There was a piece in a Bill James book many years ago that he wrote about baseball managers. And the gist of the piece is that when James was in the Army, he had a sergeant who was a disciplinarian and had an authoritarian style of leadership. And while the guy got results, over time people chafed at the leadership. Morale started to flag. So he was replaced by a more lenient and inclusive sergeant who came in and spiffed the place up, changed the curtains from brown to blue, and morale improved for a while.

Then as time passed, people got frustrated with that more lax management style, some people took advantage of it, and morale started to flag again, at which point the lax guy got fired and they brought in another disciplinarian who put the brown curtains back up and everybody appreciated the change. Until they got sick of that guy, and so on.

I think you’ll see the Knicks respond well to the blue curtains for a while. Thibs had been here for a good number of years and the brown curtains were getting stale. How long people will respond to the blue curtains is anybody’s guess, but in the short term I’d expect a bump in esprit de corps, just because that’s human nature.

Z-Man, you’re totally right on Brown, but the counter-argument I’d give is that coaching in the NBA (as in managing 15 super-wealthy, highly competitive young men) is incredibly hard, and all coaches are human beings, which is a shitty place to start. I’d be hard-pressed to find a coach who hasn’t made questionable decisions or cringe-worthy quotes. To be honest, while I don’t pay much attention to other coaches, about the only ones I think seem exemplary are Spo and Pops, and one of them isn’t even a coach anymore.

My “happy talk” right now is based on the fact that the things you won’t miss from Thibs are the things that Brown might very well do much better at. It’s absolutely true that he might fuck things up in a way Thibs would never do, and it’s one of the reasons coaches rarely seem to last in the NBA (i.e., eventually he probably will); but for the next year or two, which is our likely window, Brown might well be the man for the job.

To be determined…

Edit: Or what JK said, using very different words…

Pop and Spo are such interesting cases. Obviously it helps if you have rosters with the likes of Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, and Kawhi, or LBJ, Wade, Bosh, and Allen…and I suppose you can include Kerr in that mix, with Steph, Dray, Durant, and Klay…and the management of those teams being okay with lulls in continuity resulting in losing seasons.

It’s interesting that none of those guys were retreads. Spo has been with Miami for 28 years, the last 17 as head coach. Pop has been in the Spurs organization for 35 years, 29 as HC. Kerr is at 11 years and counting. Will Daigneault be the next in that line?

Sadly, we could never have that kind of coach in NY because of Dolan’s stupidity, meddling, and impatience. The closest we came was JVG….and as good as he was, he wasn’t on the level with Spo or Pop.

I think you’ll see the Knicks respond well to the blue curtains for a while. Thibs had been here for a good number of years and the brown curtains were getting stale. How long people will respond to the blue curtains is anybody’s guess, but in the short term I’d expect a bump in esprit de corps, just because that’s human nature.

This is part of the reason I think the Knicks’ window with this core is just one season.

(If they pivot smartly this summer, they can extend it, of course.)

I’ll never forget the day JVG quit, it was on my dad’s birthday December 8, 2001. I was so shocked I didn’t want to believe the news, little did I know how awful the Knicks were about to become.

To be honest, while I don’t pay much attention to other coaches, about the only ones I think seem exemplary are Spo and Pops, and one of them isn’t even a coach anymore.

What makes them great is that they’re high character men who value human relationships in all aspects of life and welcome difficult conversations continously that individually bring out the best version in others with hyper low tolerance for bull shit. While loyalty can be a strength, starting Josh Hart last season was a weakness.

We will quickly find out all of Browns weaknesses too and just have to hope that the swap for another flawed general is what this team needs at this time.

I’m looking forward to learning signals of Brown’s in game adjustments, rotations/leashes, third quarter starts and finishing games.

little did I know how awful the Knicks were about to become.

JVG knew. That’s why he quit.

I mean, the Knicks have had some of these guys, but they also had the likes of Dolan bringing in one flawed exec after another, while also meddling and demanding short-term fixes rather than smart rebuilds. Not that Leon has been perfect, but he’s the closest thing the Knicks have had as a competent long-term exec since, I dunno, Dave Checketts? Seems like any chance of finding “that executive” and “that coach” was undermined by the Dolan-Isiah-Mills continuum.

JVG knew. That’s why he quit.

JVG must have bee a Moody Blues fan:

The places I’ve seen
And the road in between
Make me wonder why
I’m searching for my dreams up in the sky
I heard the call
And in the mirror
I saw the writing on the wall…..

What makes them great is that they’re high character men who value human relationships in all aspects of life and welcome difficult conversations continously that individually bring out the best version in others with hyper low tolerance for bull shit.

Potentially. But I bet there’s a lot of good coaches that have those qualities but never reached those heights.

I think what they really have in common is how uniquely empowered they were by the luck of winning early.

When you think of the best coaches in our lifetime, what do they all have in common? Phil, Pop, Spo, and Kerr all won titles immediately. Is that because they were so inherently great? Maybe, but I doubt it. They were good and they had MJ, Duncan, LeBron, Steph, respectively.

Early success bought them security, and security gave them more reps. That’s how they ended up so great. They’ve had more continuous reps than everyone else, and they’ve been operating for a long time with a sense of security that very few ever have.

The best thing that ever happened to Spo was Pat Riley publicly dressing down LeBron and Wade for complaining about him. They thought they were going to get him fired and get Riley as their coach, like when Shaq & Wade conspired to push SVG out in ’06.

Imagine if that coup had been successful (like they usually are). Does he still become Spo? I highly doubt it. He’d still have the same human traits, but if you swap out winning a championship early for getting fired early, he doesn’t have early empowerment and the continuous reps. And I bet he becomes someone much different.

We’re seeing something similar with whats-his-name up in Boston. Pretty terrible coach in his first year. Pretty bad in the playoffs against the Knicks, too. But he got that early title and he’s got job security. If he stays in Boston like I think he will, I bet he’ll soon be considered one of the better NBA coaches.

I still can’t believe we got the “old man yells at cloud” version of Phil Jackson, and that the actual literal CAA agent who ended up with the job ended up being the guy that brought us out of the doldrums.

Life be strange.

This is such a uniquely weird franchise, mostly (but not entirely) due to its owner. He pisses money away like a drunken sailor, which would be a good thing if it was only that. He hires incompetent people at the top, then extends them in spite of their obvious incompetence, then fires them and eats enormous amounts of salary. He must have eaten $200+M in the last 25 years on defunct contracts for execs, coaches, and players.

Players will always come and go, but it would be nice to have some continuity on the sidelines and in the front office. Seems like Leon will likely be around for Brunson’s prime, and he’s somewhat competent, so at least there’s that.

Of course, given how Yankees fans talk about Cashman and Boone, maybe continuity is overrated!

When you think of the best coaches in our lifetime, what do they all have in common? Phil, Pop, Spo, and Kerr all won titles immediately

It is pretty clear all those guys coached at least one all time player and multiple HOF players on the same team at the same time.

@jledwardsiii.bsky.social‬
League Sources: The Knicks have hired Peter Patton as a shooting coach. He’s been the director of player development in Chicago and a shooting coach for Minnesota and Dallas.

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It is pretty clear all those guys coached at least one all time player and multiple HOF players on the same team at the same time.

Spo has been pretty impressive even without all-timers on his roster, though.

It is pretty clear all those guys coached at least one all time player and multiple HOF players on the same team at the same time.

That’s what I said in the rest of that paragraph.

I won’t miss the slow pace. I won’t miss the inconsistent leash with young players (say, RJ vs. IQ).

Speaking of IQ, I saw some highlights of him. He looks terrific. He’s healthy and in great shape. He could have a very good two-way season this year.

“Spo has been pretty impressive even without all-timers on his roster, though.”

Yes, he took over a team that went 15-67 under Pat Riley the year before only to draft Michael Beasley, then coached them to a 43-39 record and a first round appearance, then kept improving every year. Then LeBron and Bosh came in but they but got upset by the Mavs before finally winning a championship.

So while he “won early,” he actually didn’t get to the finals until his Heatles team, when he was heavily favored but lost. That was kind of the moment of truth for him, and he survived.

But since then, he has gone on to be one of the most respected coaches in the NBA on his own merits. He’s gotten several of his teams to overachieve in the playoffs, reaching two finals with a team that finished 5th and 7th in the conference. Whereas other relatively young championship coaches have been fired not long after winning….Nurse, Malone, Budz, Carlisle, Vogel, Lue…

So I think it’s more about front office (and by extension owner) loyalty to the coach and less about winning early. Being able to adapt coaching style to new personnel is also a factor…

And frankly, sometimes having a generational player actually hurts a coach because of the pressure to maximize winning and to keep that player happy and in the fold. If Giannis isn’t in Milwaukee, maybe Budz sticks around longer. Same with some of those other guys, such as Malone.

The closest we came was JVG….and as good as he was, he wasn’t on the level with Spo or Pop.

Great players make great coaches, not the other was around. If Van Gundy coached prime Duncan or prime LeBron or prime Steph, he’d absolutely he viewed on the same level as those guys. Instead he got old-knees Ewing, old-everything LJ, one-trick Houston, and 120 lbs Camby. To go up against the Jordan Bulls with. Yeah, Spo wouldn’t have been long for that job either.

Donnie, maybe so, but JVG also did not have the support or the personality built for longevity compared to Spo or Pop. He had pretty good teams in Houston but never got out of the first round, and left coaching at age 45, never to return as a head coach. Would that have been true for Spo or Pop? I highly doubt it.

So I think it’s more about front office (and by extension owner) loyalty to the coach and less about winning early.

I find it impossible to separate the two. The winning early begets the loyalty, the loyalty begets the continuous reps, the continuous reps beget the greatness.

Mazzulla will be an interesting test of this hypothesis. I doubt anyone will ever compare him to Pop & Spo, but if I’m correct he’ll stay in Boston long enough to become very good.

(FWIW, I could be wrong but I recall Pop being considered a very basic coach when we faced him in the ’99 finals. I even remember reading previews that gave JVG the edge in coaching.)

“I find it impossible to separate the two.”

Well winning is sort of a given for most coaches, especially on teams with aspirations, e.g. not the Process Sixers.

However, winning means nothing without the loyalty and patience of management, as we saw with Malone, Budz, Carlisle, Lue, and Nurse. And the coach’s personality can erode loyalty despite winning. See: Thibs in Chicago, and to a degree in Minny and NY.

Pop is an interesting case because the team drafted one of the most coachable legendary players of all time in Duncan and also found several HOF players deep in the draft. He won 4 championships in his first 10 years of coaching and won the equivalent of 50+ games for 20 years straight. So Phil, Spo, and Pop are exceptions in that they not only won early, they won multiple championships early. So it seems like that second championship is vital to longevity.

Boston is notoriously rough on coaches, so if Mazz doesn’t produce another couple of long playoff runs, he probably won’t last long. Boston still has a decent championship window if Tatum and Brown stay healthy, but it won’t be easy given their salaries and the punitive cap situation. Brad is clever, but the playing field is different and there’s new ownership that might not be fans of those two for long.

OTOH, I think Daignault will win at least one more chip in this run, so it will not surprise me if he becomes an institution there along with Presti.

Maybe I’m a Homer, but I think all this talk about the Knicks needing to attach quite a few 1sts to KAT to land Giannis is a little OTT. Sure, KAT isn’t the physically dominant player Giannis is, but you slot him in next to Turner and you’ve got a difficult offense to stop. They won’t play much defense, but they’ll be putting up a ton of points. Let’s not forget- KAT is practically a perennial all star. That’s gotta be intriguing for any team with a disgruntled all star. I can’t be overvaluing KAT, am I?

Re: Patton, it sounds like most of the young Bulls were crushed when he was fired because he helped their games so much (maybe why Coby White refused to extend), so I think I like this hire.

I don’t like the rankings much at all, but Law Murray of The Athletic ranked each position in the NBA, and the Knicks (according to him) have the 4th best point guard, 4th best shooting guard, 4th best power forward, 6th best small forward — and 22nd best center, which, whatever that’ll be much higher next year if Mitch stays on the floor.

I saw someone warming up in the bullpen and I swear to god if Boone takes Schlittler out of this game after 67 pitches I’m going to hate him almost as much as Al does.

Probably a reasonable move to take the kid out right now, although it’s not a no-brainer.

Cashman’s all time heist is hitting .182 with a .568 OPS and probably just ended the season with his glove.

Cashman’s all time heist is hitting .182 with a .568 OPS and probably just ended the season with his glove.

I’m pretty sure a guy who in 176 games for the Yankees (slightly over a full season) has hit 41 hrs 103 rbi and 51 stolen bases is considered a pretty fair acquisition.

He booted a one hopper that would have finished the inning. Take him out and fucking shoot him.

Grisham has a .233 OBP can we please pinch hit for this bum so someone can get Judge up with the bases loaded?

James L. Edwards III and Fred Katz (The Athletic):

Should Knicks want Giannis?
Edwards: I can’t believe I’m going to say this … No.

Well, yes, they should want Giannis, but not at this point, not with what it would cost to maybe, possibly get him.

In this first- and second-apron world, team building/depth appears to be more critical than ever. The winners of the East and West last season were two of the deeper teams in the NBA. The Knicks would have to part ways with, at least, two starting-level players, and possibly more, to enter the Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. I’m not sure a “Big 3” of Brunson, Antetokounmpo, and Bridges makes New York that much better, if at all, if it means piecing the rest of the roster together with a slew of minimum players and unproven youngsters.

Of course, we won’t know what the current Knicks can do until we see this season play out. Ask me again a year from now. However, this team just went to the Eastern Conference finals. It kept its core together while addressing the depth around the margins. Things are looking up.

Currently, New York has four players who would start on every team in the NBA, and three more who would start on some of them. The East is struggling badly due to key injuries to rival teams. The Knicks are in a great spot to get to the NBA Finals.

Antetokounmpo would be great for dollars. He’d be great on the court, too. He’s one of the best players in the NBA. I think New York is in a position to obtain its goals without him. I don’t see the need to throw their future completely away and risk messing up the present when the present, as it is now, appears to be in good shape.

Katz: It doesn’t matter, because the answer will make itself apparent by the end of this season.

If the Knicks jell under new coach Mike Brown and run away with the Eastern Conference, Antetokounmpo might not be worth all the team has to give up to get him. However, if they disappoint, adding a generational talent who’s in his 30s but still at the height of his powers is rarely a problem.

It depends not just on the results of the season but also on which strengths and weaknesses emerge. For example, if the Knicks have a magical season and then lose early due to unfortunate injury luck, they might curse the basketball gods.

However, if the Hawks bounce them in the second round because Trae Young continues to pound Brunson and Towns in pick-and-rolls, then the Knicks could have second thoughts about their All-Star pairing.

Until the end of the season, why shouldn’t the Knicks keep their options open, even if their path to Antetokounmpo is bumpy compared to San Antonio’s or Houston’s? When an all-time great puts you on the list, you make sure to stay on the list.

I’m pretty sure a guy who in 176 games for the Yankees (slightly over a full season) has hit 41 hrs 103 rbi and 51 stolen bases is considered a pretty fair acquisition.

It was the same story for him last October (.182 / .559).

When I talked about guys who can hit mediocre pitching in the regular season but predictably suck against postseason pitching I largely meant him and Grisham. They don’t just not hit, they look like shit at the plate every time.

At least Jazz had two great ABs this postseason. That’s two more than Trent.

Yeah, Yanks are likely to go out because they’re getting outplayed in all aspects of the game. Grisham turned into a pumpkin, Volpe can’t make contact with a beach ball, starters have been bad (except Schlittler). Jazz error was real bad but that’s not why we’re losing.

Bullpen to Jazz and Trent: hold my beer.

Maybe we can get Luke back out there, try to get his ERA into single digits.

Grisham has a .233 OBP can we please pinch hit for this bum so someone can get Judge up with the bases loaded?

With who? Domingez who hit .208 vs lefties this season. The slumping player he shhould have pinch hit for was Volpe and his 16Ks in 26 ABs.

I shouldn’t be able to accurately predict what’s going to happen to the Yankees lineup every year. But I can. You can bookmark this page: this time next year we’ll be fielding a lineup of dudes with good regular season OPS who can’t make contact with the ball in October. And Jazz will be hitting around .180 with an OPS of .560.

We have a type. We need a new type.

It was the same story for him last October (.182 / .559).

LOL sample size. Just stop defending useless positions. The Jazz acquisition was an excellent deal for the Yankees.

I didn’t say he wasn’t a good acquisition.

I said he sucked in these playoffs. And the last playoffs. And he’ll suck in next year’s, too.

Oh look, it came down to the #9 hitter who is batting 7th because we have three #9 hitters.

And now we have the two other #9 hitters leading off the 9th.

The Yanks have 4 hits tonight, one solo HR by their #9 hitter and 3 singles. In a TOR bullpen game. They sucked in games 1 and 2 as well. Singling out one guy seems silly.

The announcers really shouldn’t be talking as if this game is over. It’s rude. Especially considering that the Yankees had the best offense in baseball.

I didn’t say he wasn’t a good acquisition.

Stop it Hubs, you were making fun of Al’s post yesterday when he said something like Jazz was an all time heist by Cashman. It is poor form and unmanly to kick an acquaintance in the nuts when he is clearly suffering. You are/should be better than that.

You can bookmark this page: this time next year we’ll be fielding a lineup of dudes with good regular season OPS who can’t make contact with the ball in October.

How do you find the players who have the magic “hitting in October” gene, and how do you identify the “good hitter in the regular season but not in October” guys? You gonna talk David Eckstein out of retirement? Base your personnel decisions solely on postseason statistics? How is that supposed to work?

I’m very clearly not singling out one guy. At least not one guy in the lineup.

I’m singling out the philosophy that leads us to acquire the same type of guy up and down the lineup. That is why they have 4 hits tonight, sucked in games 1 and 2, as well, sucked against Boston, and have sucked pretty much every postseason for the last 8 years.

It was TNFH who said the Jazz acquisition was an all-time heist, I’m ambivalent about it right now….

The Yanks have 4 hits tonight, one solo HR by their #9 hitter and 3 singles. In a TOR bullpen game. They sucked in games 1 and 2 as well. Singling out one guy seems silly.

The one guy who should be singled out is Cashman because he teaches in their system launch angle and swinging from your shoes rather than bat to ball skils.

If Toronto had any starting pitching they would be dangerous as their line up is fairly slump proof.

The Yankees hit a bunce of dingers and have quite a few 4 hit games, espically when the pitching gets better.

How do you find the players who have the magic “hitting in October” gene, and how do you identify the “good hitter in the regular season but not in October” guys? You gonna talk David Eckstein out of retirement? Base your personnel decisions solely on postseason statistics? How is that supposed to work?

I’m not making a silly David Eckstein argument, JK.

I’m making an ability-to-make-contact-against-good-pitchers argument.

The Yankees are philosophically willing to overlook poor contact rates against good pitching as long as you can accumulate decent OPS against mediocre pitching.

So to answer your question, you would do it by running an attribution analysis. I don’t think I’m seeing small sample size issues with Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm. Their ABs are consistently terrible. You could give these guys 200 ABs in this series and they won’t approach their regular season numbers. They need their 19 games against the Baltimore Orioles and their 150 ABs against shitty middle relievers to do that.

The one guy who should be singled out is Cashman because he teaches in their system launch angle and swinging from your shoes rather than bat to ball skils.

HE IS THE ONE GUY I AM SINGLING OUT!

Jazz is just an example. There’s 50 more over the last decade from Joey Gallo to Starlin Castro to Josh Donaldson to Alex Verdugo. We always have those guys and the lineup always struggles. It’s not random.

I’d tell Hubert to stick to basketball but his basketball opinions are just as bad as his baseball takes.

Hopefully we can put the NY baseball post-mortem behind us tonight ant from here on out it will be all Knicks all the time.

PD Kudos to Aaron Judge, he was a monster this post-season but had zero help.

If anyone should be singled out, it’s Grisham. When your leadoff hitter batting in front of an all-time great having an all-time playoffs has a .226 OBP, that’s the ball game right there.

I am very skeptical that this phenomenon you are talking about exists, where the Yankees systematically find players that can only hit bad pitching. Major league hitters face an assortment of good and bad pitching, and if other teams have better “October” hitters than the Yankees than those hitters are also going to be better regular season hitters than the Yankees against good pitching.

Let’s say the Dodgers have great October hitters because they can hit that high quality postseason pitching. Well, in the regular season they’re going to hit that high quality pitching better than the Yankees too, right? And aren’t they also going to hit the crummy pitching just as well?

How do you find the players who have the magic “hitting in October” gene, and how do you identify the “good hitter in the regular season but not in October” guys

The Yankees had exactly two players Bellinger and Judge that were “good hitters” in the regular season. They had three starters hitting below .220. The entire line up save Bellinger has a shitty two strike approach.

I’d tell Hubert to stick to basketball but his basketball opinions are just as bad as his baseball takes.

I’m batting 1.000 on our baseball arguments, Al.

You’re the one who said this was BY FAR the best offense in baseball; I said it would shit the bed bc it’s full of easy outs.

I’d tell Hubert to stick to basketball but his basketball opinions are just as bad as his baseball takes.

I’d bet anything Hubert is a pretty good fella IRL. Probably wasn’t breast feed, though 🙂

I don’t have baseball arguments or debates with trolls who apparently only watch 7 games in the playoffs and not watch one of the 162 regular season games.

Haha suck it Yankees. Now if the Dodgers would just shit the bed, I’ll be quite happy with this dumb sport for 2025.

“I don’t have baseball arguments or debates with trolls who apparently only watch 7 games in the playoffs and not watch one of the 162 regular season games.”

Great point.

The Yankees had exactly two players Bellinger and Judge that were “good hitters” in the regular season. They had three starters hitting below .220. The entire line up save Bellinger has a shitty two strike approach.

You have the most ridiculous boomer takes on baseball I have ever seen. Next you’re going to tell me the pitching isn’t good because they don’t throw enough complete games.

I am very skeptical that this phenomenon you are talking about exists,

It’s just contact rate, man. I’m sure someone keeps track of it. Someone probably breaks down WAR by team, too.

You’re projecting me making this about being clutch. I’m just talking about being able to get the bat on the ball.

I don’t have baseball arguments or debates with trolls who apparently only watch 7 games in the playoffs and not watch one of the 162 regular season games.

You do, actually. And you’ve lost all of them. Which means I’m picking up more from 7 games than you are from 162.

Hal Steinbrenner sucks
Brian Cashman sucks
Aaron Boone sucks
Every hitter not named Aaron Judge sucks

Does that kinda sum up the vibe?

PS Where is Michael Kay? Didn’t he royally diss the Jays this summer? How’s that crow taste, bud? Did any Blue Jay look his way and say “Sssseeeeeyaaaa!”?

You have the most ridiculous boomer takes on baseball I have ever seen. Next you’re going to tell me the pitching isn’t good because they don’t throw enough complete games.

My take on baseball is if you don’t make contact enough, you don’t win very often. Your orgasmic team of 9 Dave Kingmans won’t win very often.

Could you imagine Derek Jeter’s career if he had been drummed with launch angle and pull everything to the short part of the ball park?

25 seasons with one title and many similar results. Definition of insanity, something something.

Hal Steinbrenner sucks
Brian Cashman sucks
Aaron Boone sucks
Every hitter not named Aaron Judge sucks

Does that kinda sum up the vibe?

Hal definitely sucks.

Brian Cashman belongs in the hall of fame but he’s been here too long and we desperately need a change in philosophy.

I don’t think Boone is that bad, actually. I think he’s a punching bag for Yankees fans because they need to convince themselves it’s his fault to avoid accepting reality.

(Btw Derek Jeter just said on TV that he knows Aaron Boone isn’t the one making all the managerial decisions during the game. He also made the same exact argument I made about needing to make contact in October. But what does Derek Jeter know about hitting in October, right?)

Joe Torre was great, too, and he had to go eventually. He never sucked, it was just his time. These jobs aren’t supposed to be lifetime appointments.

(Btw Derek Jeter just said on TV that he knows Aaron Boone isn’t the one making all the managerial decisions during the game. He also made the same exact argument I made about needing to make contact in October. But what does Derek Jeter know about hitting in October, right?)

Careful with those boomer takes!

BTW, on a happier note, it appears the hostages are going home Monday!

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My take on baseball is if you don’t make contact enough, you don’t win very often. Your orgasmic team of 9 Dave Kingmans won’t win very often.

Yes, modern baseball is all just teams sending out lineups of Dave Kingmans, because that was the lesson that was learned from statistical analysis.

Another F minus take.

Another F minus take.

Whatever you say. One for twenty five isn’t very good, unless you root for the other team in this town.

The Yankees should definitely continue with this philosophy, lol.

Low offensive K% should really be dominating in the playoffs then over the last 25 years then!

Oh what’s that, they don’t? Hmm, weird

Because it’s not sound logic.

Just because a high K% is likely to fail doesn’t mean a low K% is likely to dominate. A low K%/weak power approach is as unlikely to succeed as high K%/high power one.

No one’s advocating for small ball here. Just more hitters who can make contact.

Low offensive K% should really be dominating in the playoffs then over the last 25 years then!

Another silly statement. A team of Mark Bellangers would he just as useless as a team of Dave Kingmans

The Yankees led the AL in OPS, were 4th in BA, and 14th in K’s.

The Blue Jays were 2nd in OPS, 1st in BA, and 2nd in K’s.

My “crazy take” is that the 400 extra strikeouts and the 15 point lower BA was too high a cost for the extra .26 in OPS.

The Royals were 1st in K’s but they had a lower BA than the Yankees and a whopping 80 pt difference in OPS. I would not expect the Royals to beat the Yankees just because they strike out less. The 80 difference in slugging more than makes up for the 400 extra strikeouts.

There’s a balance somewhere, and the Yankees organization hasn’t been able to find it. Except, it should be noted, last year. Last year was the only year of the Boone era they were not in the bottom half of the league in strikeouts. And not coincidentally it was their best postseason. Random, right?

Tony Gwynn had a career .250 BA in the NLDS. Bum who only hits well against regular season scrubs? Well, he also had the highest regular season batting average of any player ever against the two most dominant right handers of his league: Maddux (.429) and Smoltz (.462).

The Yankees led the AL in OPS, were 4th in BA, and 14th in K’s.

The Blue Jays were 2nd in OPS, 1st in BA, and 2nd in K’s.

I think you just sort of accidentally stumbled into the correct answer of the problem. The #1 wRC+ team in baseball lost to the #4 wRC+ team. That is incredibly unremarkable.

Did Toronto win because they have a contact-oriented lineup? Or is because they were a *very similarly good offensive team* that performed better in a four game sample?

Baseball has more variance than other sports. The best teams win about 60-65 percent of their games. A .600 team beats a .500 team about 54% of the time in a single game. In a three game series, the .600 team wins 57% of the time.

By random chance the .500 team is going to win the series 43% of the time. Now flatten that to a .600 team playing a .580 team, or a .600 team playing another .600 team. You might as well have a coin flipping contest to determine the winner.

Variance is just very high in baseball. The 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks, a mediocre 84 win wild card team, knocked off the 100 win LA Dodgers in three games. Was that because of Arizona’s October-optimized roster, or was it because fluky shit happens constantly in baseball playoffs? I know my answer, because I know how often a .500 team will tend to beat a .600 team, which is surprisingly often.

The Yankees led the AL in OPS, were 4th in BA, and 14th in K’s.

The Blue Jays were 2nd in OPS, 1st in BA, and 2nd in K’s.

I think you just sort of accidentally stumbled into the correct answer of the problem. The #1 wRC+ team in baseball lost to the #4 wRC+ team. That is incredibly unremarkable.

Did Toronto win because they have a contact-oriented lineup? Or is because they were a *very similarly good offensive team* that performed better in a four game sample?

Baseball has more variance than other sports. The best teams win about 60-65 percent of their games. A .600 team beats a .500 team about 54% of the time in a single game. In a three game series, the .600 team wins 57% of the time.

By random chance the .500 team is going to win the series 43% of the time. Now flatten that to a .600 team playing a .580 team, or a .600 team playing another .600 team. You might as well have a coin flipping contest to determine the winner.

Variance is just very high in baseball. The 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks, a mediocre 84 win wild card team, knocked off the 100 win LA Dodgers in three games. Was that because of Arizona’s October-optimized roster, or was it because fluky shit happens constantly in baseball playoffs? I know my answer, because I know how often a .500 team will tend to beat a .600 team, which is surprisingly often.

Fluky shit has happened to the Yankees with remarkable consistancy the past 25 years and when they had a team that batted +/- .280 fluky shit seldom happened.

https://athlonsports.com/mlb/jeter-arod-rip-yankees-offensive-plan

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