Status Quo?

A few signs are starting to point to New York's roster remaining mostly unchanged for the time being.

Good morning, and greetings from Nashville! Had some of the best hot chicken of my life yesterday courtesy of Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish. Strong recommend.

On that note, let’s finish the week by getting into some less spicy takes from an informative podcast that dropped yesterday. That, plus the start of a brand new season of Ray Marcano’s “A Knick You Knew,” gets us going…

🗣️ News & Notes ✍️

🏀 A must listen Lowe Post podcast dropped yesterday featuring the one and only Ian Begley. Please go listen in full, as it’s awesome, but in case you don’t have time in the immediate future, here were the highlights from Mr. Begley:

• On New York’s interest James Harden: there’s a “line they aren’t willing to cross.”
  Lowe added that the Knicks’ line is not near what Morey would want, and both painted the picture of something New York would only be interested in if the price was absurdly cheap.

• On Karl-Anthony Towns: The Knicks “clearly have decided not to go there at this point.” Begs later added, “if they loved the idea of Towns right now, they could have had him.”

• On New York’s interest if OG Anunoby were to become available: “That’s a name they would circle back on.” He added, “as of late last week, I haven’t heard anything about Toronto listening or taking calls on Anunoby.”

• On Dame: “I haven’t heard that they’re in it in a significant way at all.” Begley indicated that there are internal concerns about his fit with Brunson.

• On Zion: “I’m sure he’s someone they’re going to keep an eye on.”

• On Julius: “I don’t think there’s a world right now where the Knicks move Julius Randle” unless it’s for someone like Joel Embiid.

• Speaking of Embiid, Lowe openly questioned the notion that Daryl Morey wouldn’t trade the 2023 MVP within the division. “I’m not sure he cares about stuff like that”

• On Immanuel Quickley’s playoff performance: “Some of the coaches were a little bit disappointed in his play,” but Begley added that it doesn’t change their long term outlook, and he’d be surprised if they didn’t come to an agreement on an extension in the $18-20 million annual range.

• Finally, Lowe noted that he thinks the Knicks view Fournier’s expiring contract as a real asset in this marketplace, and that they wouldn’t have an issue bringing him into camp if the right deal doesn’t present itself before then.

Just another unnecessary reminder that we are all incredibly spoiled by the quality of the beat reporters who cover this team on a daily basis. Speaking of which…

Status Quo?

All this week, I’ve been using a Fred Katz Athletic article from late last week as a jumping off point to discuss possible Knick targets.

Specifically, Katz reported that New York’s front office had targeted non-star, “prime-aged veterans” who could help the roster right now, possibly at the expense of one of their young guards. In the spirit of that piece, I spent time examining OG Anunoby and both Bogdanovic’s. My original plan was to keep doing similar deep dives on other realistic targets, and then a funny thing happened as I began to research further:

I realized there weren’t any.

That’s not to say the Knicks don’t have interest in any other non-stars, but if the exercise is to highlight vets who are worth swapping out a Quickley or a Grimes or a Barrett for, then it really does shorten the list quite a bit.

Let’s go through a quick exercise to show why that is. Last season, in addition to Bojan Bogdanovic, there were a dozen more players who a) averaged at least 20 points, b) hadn’t made an All-Star team and c) were either past or in the last year of their rookie pact.

You tell me if any of these make sense for the Knicks…