LivingLegend wrote:martin wrote:LivingLegend wrote:fishmike wrote:LivingLegend wrote:This Mikal Bridges guy is starting to look like he belongs in the league --- seems like a pretty good player.Loved how easy offense came for Jalen (at least early) -- love that we are continuing to find Mikal/OG for open and some easy buckets.
Kat is frustrating because clearly most skilled guy on court but he gets caught up in all kinds of little distracting stuff -- with 100% focus he'd probably be avg. 35/15 on 60/50/90 shooting
. And he still goes for 25 and 13.
Can't stand Moritz Wagner -- always waiting for him to hurt our guys like Embid.
On the Precious.Mitch returns. Noted on a show I listened to earlier - that Knicks have made 2 mid-season BIG time trades past few years (Josh/OG). Keeps me wondering if we are scouring the league for specific talent we want to add to the roster. Still feels like bench needs creation/scoring.
I honestly think it's already here and they are happy with it.
1) Establish new starting line up (going well being #1 in the league)
2) Get quality help so we can start reducing winter minutes. I think that comes in Precious/Shamat/MitchI like how things are panning out. Precious will cut into OG's minutes and that's important. If we can go into the playoffs with healthy OG/KAT backed up by Precious/Mitch I think we are in great shape to compete for a chip.
We are thin at PG. After Brunson/Payne it's McBride (really a SG) and he's got tendinitis in his knee 
Tyler needs time
You may be right but I still think we need 1 more legit veteran that can add multiple things - if we have championship goals we'll have to get thru Uber talented teams like Celtics, Cavs, Mavs, OKC...etc. Particularly would like 1 more LEGIT defender to throw at other teams especially if an OG is injured or in foul trouble....someone that can step in and compete at a high level.
I may be wrong -- lets see -- but I'll be keeping my ears open for potential rumors.
NOTE: He didn't score last night and he ended up a -13 but I watched all of Marcus Smarts minutes last night vs Dallas. He played outstanding D on both Luka/Kyrie -- while guarded by Smart a few times Luka just moved off the ball because Smart was sitting in his shorts. Also showed nice passing --- he's an example of another vet we could bring in and someone we could throw defensively at guys like Tatum/Brown/White/Holiday/Garland/Mitchell etc. Not a perfect player but a playoff gamer that defends like an animal.
I'm of the opinion that the Knicks have one more move to go. Maybe it doesn't happen until off season, but it'll happen IMHO. It's why I'm a dead ass broken record on Herb Jones.
That would be dream to add Precious and Herb.
So, I'd like to frame this conversation around contract length. Specifically, the bench. As we approach the 2nd Apron, our bread and butter will be 2nd Rd rookie min exception contracts, veteran's on existing contracts with additional term and vet min contracts. For sake of conversation, Brunson/OG/KAT/Hart/McBride/Kolek/Dadiet all have longer term contracts, Bridges, Robinson, Achiuwa and Sims have or will have bird rights after this year and our multitude of 2nd round picks have varying contracts.
Mitch has this year and next year. That Herb Jones swap is too perfect (except for losing Mitch which will make me sad). You buy another year of control on a long defender that is not a negative on offense and you save money this year, potentially enough to swap out Ryan for Warren.
Achiuwa has the potential to be the one at PF, but I need to see some action this year and a longer term contract to believe.
Cam is making me believe, but I need to see a longer term contract. I am a little lower on Kolek than you folk, but just think he needs time and defensive skills.
Brunson / Cam
Bridges / Deuce
Hart / Jones
OG / Achiuwa
KAT / Sims
A lot of dogs in the fight...