Briefing: July 10
New Deal Knicks
Good Morning,
Knicks lost again in their third Summer League game, 85-73 to Toronto.
Watch tonight at 9:30 PM EST on MSG Networks as they round up their SL schedule vs the Lakers.
Knicks are re-working their contract agreement with Reggie Bullock due to an issue uncovered during his physical, per ESPN.
Bullock’s agent told ESPN the Knicks have handled the situation “First-class throughout.”
Expect Bullock’s 2-year, $21 million to be renegotiated to fit within the room exception, which starts at $4.8 million in 2019-20.
Meanwhile, ESPN reports that Marcus Morris is re-considering his 2-year, $20 million agreement with the Spurs in order to sign with the Knicks (reportedly 1-year, $15 million).
Excluding Bullock, the Knicks have approximately $14.8 million in remaining cap space. Since Julius Randle’s 2019-20 salary includes an unlikely bonus that brings his 2019-20 salary closer to $18 million, it provides the Knicks with nearly $2 million more in cap space to make a larger offer to Marcus Morris.
Jonathan Macri from Vegas…
On my way out of the Thomas & Mack Center following last night's "I flew 2,000 miles for that" affair, I ran into long-time Knicks season ticket holder Greg Armstrong. He's been going to games for as long as I've been watching them, and his experience came in handy as he pretty well summed up what we all saw:
Hey...it's only summer league.
Judging from the torches and pitchforks on my Twitter feed last night, it's probably best for all of us to stand in front of the proverbial chalkboard and Bart Simpson that phrase a few hundred times.
Yes, I know: why should we be the ones to suffer? Mitchell Robinson should be the one in the front of the classroom writing "I will not commit 5 fouls in 9 minutes." Or perhaps RJ Barrett with "I will play competent defense at some point before my next contract."
(My personal vote would go to Kadeem Allen with "I will not make Macri look like an ass for saying I was the most competent point guard on the roster." Thanks again Kadeem!)
It was ugly all around. Coming into Summer League, fans wanted to see a group of young Knicks looking to prove to the world that New York didn't need Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant to vault back into relevance. Instead, we got spurts of that over two games, mixed in with equal parts sloppiness and absentmindedness, and then last night's "can we just let the scrubs play now"-level performance.
It's not what anyone wanted. It also isn't reason to give up on the season before it starts. By the end of the night, the stat lines for New York's three most important players resembled what you might have expected. There were positives to be had, starting with RJ Barrett looking like a reasonable facsimile of the guy fans thought they were getting with the third pick (on offense at least). It was refreshing to see him put up 17, 10 & 6 (with only one turnover) while still not playing all that well.
Ditto for Kevin Knox's 15 points on 15 shots. The lack of efficiency isn't great, but he drew double digit fouls and was getting to the line at will - something he's going to need to do often against smaller players (or bigger, slower ones for that matter). As for Mitch, for all his foul woes (I blame his lack of touches early on for his initial defensive malaise), he picked it up in the second half and was a monster on both ends, meh-screens aside. Even Iggy had a few nice moments.
Overall though, the group of kids reminded you of two things last night:
a) they're kids, and sometimes kids can make an offense look like a slop-fest, and...
b) there's a reason Scott Perry went out and signed the veterans he did.
Coaches can only do so much. Fans like to put the blame on the guys on the sidelines, but there's only so much they're capable of (as an aside, the Knicks offense - yes, they do run an offense - has a tendency to look super ugly and iso-heavy when guys don't do the little things like commit to screens, take care of the ball while driving, get in the right position, etc. Sure, this is true of any offense to a certain extent, but when so much of the action is predicated on driving and kicking out, it's especially true here. When your lead ball-handler has an off game, as Allen did last night, things can really get out of hand in a hurry.)
The hope is that, come training camp, the new additions and younger, returning vets will set an example that the kids will follow. Based on what we've seen thus far in Vegas, I wouldn't be surprised if, over the first half of the season, we saw more than a few nights where the Knox's, Mitch's and RJ's of the world don't see 20 minutes. Prepare yourself, because it's coming. At some point, the kids need to learn: splash plays get highlights, little things (and, um, this bigger thing called "defense") win games.
It's why, despite the presence of so many 4's on the roster already, I'd be positively thrilled with the addition of Marcus Morris, someone whose contributions don't always show up in the stats but make a difference where it matters most. We'll see if it comes to pass.
(Either way, nice to see the front office getting some well-deserved praise for handling the Reggie Bullock situation with class. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. Much like improvement on the court, becoming a respectable franchise in the eyes of the masses takes time.)
Regardless of whether he is or isn't a Knicks by the time September rolls around, there will be enough vets on the roster to make the intended impact. Now we have to see if it takes.
That's really all that matters. Once you get past all the noise about the Knicks culture, league-wide perception, and viability as a destination franchise, if, by the end of 82 games, we've seen real, actual, non-empty-stats progress from four, maybe five of the "core" guys, the season is a win. It's that simple.
Here in Vegas, that journey got off to a bumpy start, but anyone who thought this road was going to be easily traveled was kidding themselves. Last night was a reminder of exactly that for anyone who needed one. It's the first of many lessons for the year ahead, but just like in a real classroom, even when things seem hopeless, the hard work will eventually pay off.
On that end, we've only just begun.
Thanks for reading, talk to you tomorrow!