I hate this team and I hate this GM. I don’t even know what the hell they’re doing. I don’t understand how the hell you can roll out the same lineup after you just got whooped by Lakers’ B team.
True. I'll agree with everything you said. But you should acknowledge just how rare this happens. But now that I said it, I find it interesting that both this Knicks team and that Pistons team had an undersized alpha dog PG. i'm hoping that FVV makes a healthy return and/or Reed and Thorton develop cause all 3 fit that mold.
There isn't a set formula that says a team's core players must have all been acquired through the draft - That drafted players 1 through 12 all grow together from age 19 for a "pure" team build. It seems it's requiring teams to be super "allergic to vets". But not even OKC's title was entirely from its own drafted players. It's a mix of trades, draft picks, & vets The past championship teams last 10 years, all of them have outside veterans to its core players. Some of them abandoning it's "youth movement" to cash in on older good veterans. (Such as both LeBron Cavs & Lakers) There wasnt a single starter on champion Knicks team that was drafted by the Knicks. The Knicks didn't do the young player with "growth potential" thing like with SGA. Their youngest starter turns 29 in a month. Of their 2 drafted players the playoff rotation, NONE of them were first round picks, both bench players under 18 MPG Everyone now mostly agrees that the Rockets should have signed James Harden over Fred VanVleet (TWICE). But Harden is 90% the same thing as a Kevin Durant move. How is Harden an "acceptable old vet" with the youth, but Durant isnt? It seems the Rockets do have some direction, but under Udoka it's just not a good one - They prioritize certain size & defense skills, and not fluid ball handling, shooting & "traditional perimeter guard" skills
Harden does elevate other player’s offensive game. Durant does not. That is the main difference. That being said I don’t want either one or any other over 35 year old guy. Don’t want many over the age of 30. We need to be attaining good players that will still be here after KD and FVV ride off into the sunset, hopefully after this year.
if sengun and amen can just become a 78% free throw shooter Sengun can get to 25 ppg easy and Amen can come close to 20 a game. BIG BIG things to work on
I think that everybody is way too negative about the young players. you really cannot sit here and rate Paolo/Franz/Chet or whomever superior to Sengun or Amen. I will grant that Cunningham has probably jumped up to the Cooper Flagg or the Wemby level. and it is really unfortunate that we didn’t grab one of those guys, but it seems statistically possible that Thompson or Sengun could still get there. Smith, has improved every single year and is on a great contract. Same for Eason. I don’t think you saw a giant jump this season, but obviously there was a lot going on. If you look at his character throughout his college career, there is precedent to expect him to go back to the hungry person he was when he was the best player coming off the bench at LSU. Reed, think whatever you want. Ensure count his struggles in the playoffs against him. At the end of the day he played a single year of college basketball. and he really is not in a program in the pro levels that is orientated to his development being expedited. He’s being brought along with the team, for better or worse. look, I don’t like the coach or the GM either and if I had my druthers, I would probably bring in a new regime, but I also think that you can flip the evidence the other way and justify it to allowing them to have one more season to see how things play out. It is a reasonable and I think likely expectation that all of the young players on our roster get better next year. Including the grizzled vet Sengun. I am gonna go really crazy and think that it’s a reasonable expectation that they all get better over the next 3 to 5 years. If you want to sit and drown in the reality that we didn’t get Wemby or Cade then fine. If you don’t want to think that Thompson will pass up somebody like Cunningham than OK. personally, I think that he will, but to each their own. We passed on Jaylen Brown along with pretty much the entire NBA. The scary thing to me is that if the locker room situation is unresolved. If we are just hoping for it to heal itself, problems rarely resolve themselves that way. If it’s scabs over, it might not necessarily heal. If the locker room vibes are where they need to be, I think that this could be a very good year.
Compartmentalizing the fact that I don’t believe in the direction of the team or the decision-makers, I’m interested in looking ahead to what our cap situation looks like going forward. We basically have 4 long term cost controlled contracts on the books. Tari - $16 mil per Sengun - $37 mil per Bari - $24 mil per Amen - projecting $38 mil per + $26 mil in expiring contracts (Smart, Steveo & Clint) + $14 mil for Reed = $155 mil in 2027 contracts Projected 2027 lux tax threshold = $201 mil = $46 mil in projected 2027 cap room
