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Sean's avatar

Great write up, John. You captured the mixed feelings I’ve been going through all week quite well. My only quibble is that I would argue Mikal Bridges is going to be the one soaking up the majority of Donte’s minutes, not Deuce. Deuce will be relied on heavily off the bench, surely. But we basically got Mikal for a backup. My big concerns are the ones you outlined - an injury to OG and Towns’s defense at center. It’s why I can see Thibs starting Precious as the nominal four next to Towns. The Precious / OG defensive numbers as a unit were great last year. The other option would be starting Hart for his rebounding. Once the questions start spooling it is hard to stop them with this trade. We’ll just have to wait and see. But I also agree with you that it was necessary and an upgrade to their playoffs chances. I’m excited to see it play out.

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Dbn123's avatar

I think I have read and listened to almost all that has been written and said about the deal and John Schmeelk’s view is not so far afield.

It seems the consensus is that the Knicks gave up too much for Towns and while he is a clear upgrade over Randle, he is not a big enough upgrade to lose Dante and the Detroit pick as well. Also, the critique continues that one of the Knicks strengths last season, the bench, is now a weakness.

Amongst reporters who took that view were Tim Bontemps, Bill Simmons, Stephen A Smith, Michael Pina, and John Hollinger, among others. Of course, there are those who are positive about the deal like Kendrick Perkins, Fred Katz, maybe even Howard Beck. Our fearless leader — JM seems to be torn.

I’m worried that not only does Towns take us away from our core culture aka defensive maniacs, bruising, tough, you know you were in a fight team to one that is soft in the middle, has little shot blocking and three key players who are highly fragile in Towns, OG and Robinson.

Finally, the roster is thin and I am not sure how much we can count on some of the new guys who have kicked around the NBA in Shamet, Payne, Warren (not sure if he makes the team) and Okeke (not sure he makes the team). And with Towns, OG and Robinson missing an average of 20 games a season for the past few seasons, depth is doubly important.

If I could go and undo the deal, I would. But I can’t so I will just hope the minority view turns out to be the correct one.

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