Congrats on your anniversary and your beautiful family. May your home be blessed.
As to the Knicks... At 66, I've become a patient fan. Last season was an unexpected gift. I am happy that it was. And, I have let it go. The only thing that matters is the now.
Team building is a [dialectical] process. Inevitably, there are steps forward and reversals. Successful adaptations and mistakes. It can't be avoided. But, errors can be ameliorated. Let's see what the Knicks do. A PIVOT would be dramatic. However is it necessary?
Rome wasn't built in a day and champions are won in a season. If good people are in command and the players have the right stuff [do they?] - they will find their greatness in time. And, it may not be THIS year. As a fan I will hold on and enjoy [find the good in the bad] the journey.
Thanks to you and the KFS Crew. Wishing everyone joy!
Great column and one that will be written by many others before we hit the MLK Jr. annual day game on January 17th. It is now clear that everything that was mentioned last as an “excuse” for their good play was true. They were the healthiest team, the luckiest team (# of open misses for their opponents) and a team that caught a lot of teams by surprise.
Now, we are back to reality. Unfortunately, the FO blew a chance at some long-time rebuilding (went into the off-season with two firsts and the team with the most money under the cap). I won’t rehash how they blew it but they blew it big time.
Getting back to reality means admitting their mistakes and geting back to the long term rebuilding that was the real plan Post hiring Leon Rose. Trade Robinson for whatever you can get, he will be a UFA this off-season; it pains me to say it, but find out what DRose is worth on the open market; trade Burks if you can; give up on the RJ optimism and find out if packaging him gets you picks and /or young players, etc.
Give real time to Obi, Q, Grimes, Deuce, Sims;
and
TAKE THE DAMN BALL OUT OF RANDLE’S HANDS. He is not a point forward and you can’t run your offense through the best ball-stopper this side of Melo.
Happy Anniversary to you & Dolores. She must certainly be a saint to manage (even encourage) the hours you devote to us fans and KFS. As a numbers freak who fills his gas tank to $51.15 for the pleasure of seeing the numbers repeat in reverse, I love the 12/13/14 sequencing! So...this Knicks situation is SOOO interesting to me at this precipice and I have two key takes. I'm fascinated to see how Thibs will handle a clear situation where playing the younger guys at least more is both good for the organization long term and for any coach's key priority which is winning now. This ties to my 2nd point that tanking is not the answer with this team. Simply tinkering with minutes (+Obi, +Grimes, +IQ, + even Jericho) and reducing minutes for "vets" (-Fournier, -Ju, -marginally all other centers (it is ridiculous that we have 4 centers on our roster and none of them are truly what we need), -Barrett) we could have a very different energy and cohesion. Tanking is overrated as a strategy particularly in the new structure where getting the upper echelon pick is not as likely as it seems and Knicks jerseys are selling at much higher rate at MSG ($$$$). Plus...how many up and comers and draft picks can you have? At some point you need to quit being a pick collector and salary cap spacer and translate those to results. We will need to insert those young players into a somewhat winning culture/team for any picks to be of max value. Last bonus take is I'm opened to trading Randle, but I suspect what we think we could get for him in return is a lot less in reality. While he is blocking Obi to a degree, he's not an addition by subtraction situation...yet.
I know I keep harping on this, sorry, but the Myles Turner fascination plagues me. It is sooo typical a Knick move. Take someone averaging 13.2 pts. and 7.8 rbs. a game and make him out to be the answer to out prayers- and give up draft picks, young players and sign him to a big contract. His stats are 12.6 and 6.7 for his career. He disappears for multiple games at a time. With one of the best big men and point guards around, his team has a worse record than the Knicks. Why would you expect anything different for the Knicks. Once again the Knicks are the answer to a struggling teams' prayers. How many players and coaches has the Pacers gone through with Turner on the team? We need fast athletic players at the wing and point guard positions. Based on last year's success, we went to a three point focus on offense only to find out that last year was an outlier and the team cannot shoot threes. We need easy transition baskets.
Congrats on your anniversary and your beautiful family. May your home be blessed.
As to the Knicks... At 66, I've become a patient fan. Last season was an unexpected gift. I am happy that it was. And, I have let it go. The only thing that matters is the now.
Team building is a [dialectical] process. Inevitably, there are steps forward and reversals. Successful adaptations and mistakes. It can't be avoided. But, errors can be ameliorated. Let's see what the Knicks do. A PIVOT would be dramatic. However is it necessary?
Rome wasn't built in a day and champions are won in a season. If good people are in command and the players have the right stuff [do they?] - they will find their greatness in time. And, it may not be THIS year. As a fan I will hold on and enjoy [find the good in the bad] the journey.
Thanks to you and the KFS Crew. Wishing everyone joy!
Great column and one that will be written by many others before we hit the MLK Jr. annual day game on January 17th. It is now clear that everything that was mentioned last as an “excuse” for their good play was true. They were the healthiest team, the luckiest team (# of open misses for their opponents) and a team that caught a lot of teams by surprise.
Now, we are back to reality. Unfortunately, the FO blew a chance at some long-time rebuilding (went into the off-season with two firsts and the team with the most money under the cap). I won’t rehash how they blew it but they blew it big time.
Getting back to reality means admitting their mistakes and geting back to the long term rebuilding that was the real plan Post hiring Leon Rose. Trade Robinson for whatever you can get, he will be a UFA this off-season; it pains me to say it, but find out what DRose is worth on the open market; trade Burks if you can; give up on the RJ optimism and find out if packaging him gets you picks and /or young players, etc.
Give real time to Obi, Q, Grimes, Deuce, Sims;
and
TAKE THE DAMN BALL OUT OF RANDLE’S HANDS. He is not a point forward and you can’t run your offense through the best ball-stopper this side of Melo.
Happy Belated Anniversary!!!
Happy Anniversary to you & Dolores. She must certainly be a saint to manage (even encourage) the hours you devote to us fans and KFS. As a numbers freak who fills his gas tank to $51.15 for the pleasure of seeing the numbers repeat in reverse, I love the 12/13/14 sequencing! So...this Knicks situation is SOOO interesting to me at this precipice and I have two key takes. I'm fascinated to see how Thibs will handle a clear situation where playing the younger guys at least more is both good for the organization long term and for any coach's key priority which is winning now. This ties to my 2nd point that tanking is not the answer with this team. Simply tinkering with minutes (+Obi, +Grimes, +IQ, + even Jericho) and reducing minutes for "vets" (-Fournier, -Ju, -marginally all other centers (it is ridiculous that we have 4 centers on our roster and none of them are truly what we need), -Barrett) we could have a very different energy and cohesion. Tanking is overrated as a strategy particularly in the new structure where getting the upper echelon pick is not as likely as it seems and Knicks jerseys are selling at much higher rate at MSG ($$$$). Plus...how many up and comers and draft picks can you have? At some point you need to quit being a pick collector and salary cap spacer and translate those to results. We will need to insert those young players into a somewhat winning culture/team for any picks to be of max value. Last bonus take is I'm opened to trading Randle, but I suspect what we think we could get for him in return is a lot less in reality. While he is blocking Obi to a degree, he's not an addition by subtraction situation...yet.
Happy Anniversary Delores & Jon!!! Blessings to you both and daughters!!!
I know I keep harping on this, sorry, but the Myles Turner fascination plagues me. It is sooo typical a Knick move. Take someone averaging 13.2 pts. and 7.8 rbs. a game and make him out to be the answer to out prayers- and give up draft picks, young players and sign him to a big contract. His stats are 12.6 and 6.7 for his career. He disappears for multiple games at a time. With one of the best big men and point guards around, his team has a worse record than the Knicks. Why would you expect anything different for the Knicks. Once again the Knicks are the answer to a struggling teams' prayers. How many players and coaches has the Pacers gone through with Turner on the team? We need fast athletic players at the wing and point guard positions. Based on last year's success, we went to a three point focus on offense only to find out that last year was an outlier and the team cannot shoot threes. We need easy transition baskets.
Happy Anniversary.
Correction - championships are NOT won in a season