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Well, come on, actual lottery luck! I don’t want to hear the Knicks’ name called for #12, 11 or 10!

Who would want Evan Mobley? Not this guy!

Here we are at the end of days, I mean the season, might as well have a game thread for the last two and a half quarters.

Hopefully Obi has the game of his life.

I sort of like that the Knicks/Lakers/Raptors possible deal was leaked, because it allowed people to say, “Oh man, gotta at least give Rose credit for pivoting” and then he…didn’t do anything. So it’s like they pulled the rug out from under a defense of the guy. Pretty funny.

That the Knicks couldn’t even dump Burks or Kemba says a whole lot of how poorly they managed the assets of the team, in the sense that they don’t really have many veteran assets, just deals waiting to expire. However, if the Knicks were at least considering dumping Burks and Noel to clear cap space for this offseason, it suggests that there might be a willingness to try that again in the offseason. It’s much harder to do that in the offseason since contracts or no longer expiring, but…well…fuck, I dunno, man, maybe they can still find a way? But probably not.

As an aside, the Knicks can’t cut Kemba, since his deal is guaranteed for next season. They really have to try to trade him somehow.

The Knicks didn’t trade Mitch, which would suggest that they now plan on keeping him longterm, which would be great, but, well, this is the Knicks, you can never rule them out of saying, “Burks and Noel, we gotta lock down before free agency even starts, but Mitch…hmmm…I guess we can just let him go for nothing.”

“They still have their future draft picks!” Why the fuck SHOULDN’T they have their draft picks? It’s like, “Hey, they tied their shoelaces! You can’t say they didn’t tie their shoelaces! Previous Knick GMs ran around tripping on their laces every other day, but not these guys! They tied their shoelaces!” Not to mention that they already burned through one of their draft picks to get Cam Reddish, so if “they still have their draft picks” is such a bonus, then that was a bad thing, right?

In other news, while his injury didn’t seem too bad at the time, RJ is now in a walking boot, which is hilariously bad. With 50 seconds left and the Knicks down 17, Thibs took Randle, Fournier and Burks out of the game, but chose not to bring Reddish in for RJ. When asked why not (after RJ, of course, injured himself with 18 seconds to go), Thibs explained that he had put the starters back in when the Knicks had cut the lead to 13 (it was actually 15, but whatever), ignoring the fact that, again, he took three of the other starters out with 50 seconds left but not RJ for…why? The guy doesn’t just make curious decisions, he then can’t even own up to the decisions he makes! What’s up with that dude?

Boy, it was nice to have a year off from this organization being a laughingstock.

The Knicks are brutal to talk about, so let’s talk about something more fun.

Here is a list of the NBA’s pick for their Top 75 players of all-time (they actually picked 76 because of a tie. Sure there was a tie. Suuuue there was).

We all know George Mikan is the answer to the classic player who would adjust the worst to the modern NBA, but which of the classic players (classic, for the sake of this question, will be anyone who retired before Lebron James entered the league) do you think would adjust the best to the modern NBA?

I vote Wilt. Size plays in any era and certain aspects of Wilt’s game, like his assists and his outside shooting, would be even more important today (especially the outside shooting, as he’d obviously be shooting threes today). His free throw shooting was poor, but overall, I think he would be just as dominant today as he was back in the old days. Just look at a Joel Embiid for the basic idea.

That’s my pick – but what’s yours?

The New York Knicks have a 21st century problem, and it’s one best described with a 21st century analogy. I’m not going to go into a lengthy summary of Randle’s history with New York. I’ll sum it up, with bullet points (21st century style):

• The Knicks sign Randle, a basic PF, in 2019 on a short term/low risk deal.
• In his second year, Randle is lit, becomes an All Star, and makes the All-NBA 2nd team.
• Somewhat thirsty Knicks extend his contract until 2026.
• Boujee Randle acts sus, ghosts the media.
• Thibs sips tea.
• Twitter throws shade at Randle with clips of his exploits.

That said, the Knicks have a dilemma — what to do with their star player? There’s a chorus of fans hoping New York trades Randle, which they can do between February 3rd and 10th. And maybe they should, except for one thing: given Julius’ recent play, the Knicks would get pennies on the dollar. For some, sending Randle, a potential All Star/All NBA player to another team for little in return is unappetizing. Should the team wait until Randle reverts to a better version of himself, and therefore get better assets in return?

Let’s assume for a second that some time ago, you invested some money in Cryptocurrency: Randle-Coin. Now you didn’t think much of it, but all of a sudden you open your online wallet, and your investment doubled. Great! What do you do with it? You could sell your Randle-Coin, and take that money and invest it elsewhere. However you assume that the money you withdraw will probably make less in whatever you put it in (bank, stocks, Fabergé eggs, etc.) than if you just keep that money in Randle-Coin. So you keep your investment as is currently stands. Next day you look, and Randle-Coin has taken a huge dip, and is only worth what you originally bought it for. Or maybe it’s worth less than that. What do you do then?

Selling seems like a bad idea, because Randle-Coin was just worth double that, and it’s possible that it could rise again. For a moment, let’s assume you hold your investment, and Randle-Coin does in fact increase in value. What do you do with the money? Well now since it’s increased, you’re back where you were a short while ago, when you decided to leave the money in crypto because it could go up again. So you don’t cash-in, and you keep your Randle-Coin…

See the paradox? When the value of something is lower than you expect, you won’t sell (buy low, sell high!). But if the value of that thing increases, you won’t sell, because THE GAINZ!

Let’s bring this back to Julius. Let’s assume the Knicks don’t depart with him now, because the price is too low. And if they don’t trade him, should Randle’s value increase, they’re not likely to depart with him, because he’s too valuable to them! In other words why on Earth would you trade Randle if he returns to his 2020-2021 form?

So in a way it doesn’t make sense to wait and see with Randle, because if he turns the corner and suddenly starts playing well, the Knicks won’t want to depart with him. And of course, we’re making a big assumption here — that Randle can/will revert to his better self for the duration of his contract. I’d like to assume the issue with Randle isn’t physical. There’s no indication that his lackluster play is a result of an injury of some sort. And even if that were the case, it wouldn’t describe the bizarre non-play aspects of his downturn. Randle has been exhibiting a number of mental effects: hiding from the media, the thumbs down, not being neighborly to his teammates, his mental lapses on defense, etc.

In short, the Knicks are in a must-sell situation. Either before the deadline or over the summer, they must trade Randle. Given the history of NBA stars that have self-imploded, it’s unlikely that Randle returns to an All-NBA caliber player. His ceiling his likely a supplement to a team that’s already winning, not the centerpiece of one that’s trying to get to .500. Additionally Randle’s sabotage isn’t just harming himself, he’s hurting his team with his lackluster play over 35+ minutes, and the poor habits he exhibits on a nightly basis in front of his impressionable young teammates. New York has a plethora of young talent that could fill the void of Randle’s minutes, shot taking, and leadership.

While the Knicks probably won’t get much in return in a Randle trade, but they’d still have a lot to gain on the tail end of this season by doing so.

From Woj, who came up with a different headline for his actual article:

The New York Knicks are acquiring forward Cam Reddish in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks, sources told ESPN on Thursday.

The Knicks are sending forward Kevin Knox II and a 2022 first-round draft pick via the Charlotte Hornets to the Hawks for Reddish, Solomon Hill and a 2025 second-round pick, sources said.

Reddish, the 10th pick in the 2019 draft, was the victim of an overpopulated Hawks roster of talented young wing players. That ultimately left him without the role or pathway to a contract extension — and the Hawks made it a priority to move him ahead of the Feb. 10 trade deadline.

I dunno, like so many moves Leon Rose has made so far, it’s just sort of…fine. Not great, not awful, just sort of okay. Reddish has not been good so far in his NBA career, but the Charlotte pick, as we noted at the time the Knicks traded the #19 pick for it, isn’t some great asset, either, so seems fair enough. A likely late second rounder is about what Kevin Knox is worth, so fair enough there, too, and maybe the Nets collapse and that second rounder in 2025 could be good, at which point Rose will trade it for a 2028 second-rounder.

Reddish could obviously turn things around in his career, as he’s still pretty young and the Knicks have the rest of this season to see if they want to extend him or not. So it’s all…okay. It’ll be interesting to see if this is a precursor to a later trade, though.

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