After the KAT trade, the Knicks NEEDED to have guys like Kolek, Dadiet, McCullar, and Hukporti on the roster because of the salary cap. It was either those guys or straight 2-way or GLeague type talent. I don't think there was 2 ways around this. Those guys were low cost and future prospects at same time. This is a second apron thing.
Knicks bench looked like this at beginning of year: Payne, Deuce, Shamet, Precious, Sims (and injured Mitch).
I don't think the Knicks had wiggle room cap wise to do things too differently in lieu of the KAT trade. Literally could not even tack on a vet min until April, that's how tight things were. Injuries to Mitch (known) and Shamet cramped them. All they could do for Shamet was get 2way and 10 day contract talent if I recall correctly.
I don't think it is far fetched to say that the organizations expectations were set to at least second round of the playoffs, so meeting BOS or CLE hypothetically.
Dadiet was 18 at beginning of year. McCullar hurt. Huk and Kolek were the 2 guys that could play (early second round and last pick of draft, not respectfully lol). Of those 4 players, only Huk and Kolek had any chance of getting into rotations but they are behind Sims, Precious and then Deuce and Payne. Outside of Wright getting more playing time after the trade deadline, I don't know how you could have integrated the 4 young kids any differently or for the betterment of the team. Knicks chose a deliberate path for their 4 young guys.
My thought is that the Knicks are more on their "timeline/path/step in process" as Indiana and OKC were last year. This is the second year Indiana has had their lineup together. OKC swapped Giddy for Caruso and added iHart, so added 2 playoff experienced vets to SGA, JWill, Chet, Dort and the bench, all young'ish but second year of playoffs.
The expectations of where the Knicks needed to get to combined with their tight salary cap situation kind of set the market for the Knicks in how they would operate.
I don't think the Knicks expected to get to finals this year but they certainly went for it. IMHO Knicks are in the same'ish step in their process as IND and OKC were last year, but getting their differently and having to unfold differently too.
I don't think you copy what other teams are doing necessarily unless it fits what you are doing. Knicks have greatly different mix of players, timeline, and talent than both IND and OKC.
technomaster wrote:Great post - really summarizes my thinking.Somewhere (either on here, Reddit, or Facebook maybe) I noted that the Knicks miscalculated a bit by carrying 4 development players - rookies - on our roster. Four roster spots were taken up in Kolek, Dadiet, McCullar, and Hukporti. While all of those guys had their moments in the G-League, they were sort just stashes deep in the roster.
I think the key learning for the Knicks and Thibs is that every roster spot counts for winning a championship.
The Pacers play a LOT of combinations - some less optimal than others. But those guys got burn. The team collected a a lot of data (whether through behavior or perceptual!) by plugging in players in real game situations, and got real world feel of how things might work out.
There are lots of benefits to this: scenarios have already been practiced in the real world. The role players in particular feel comfortable in the spotlight. They've gotten used to the discomfort of irregular rotations on D. With the big rotation, players come in with a lot of pep to their step. Less talented, but fully rested players can play at a higher level than a tired but talented line up. They have the energy to make the effort plays - while the tired vets are practically have to will themselves to make their bodies move.
Thibs and the Knicks went down a different path - how we make the most of our top 5, how do we design plays so our stars can be at their best. While this works reasonably well, it lacks flexibility and discounts the benefits of fresh legs, and the energy of young players trying to prove themselves.
I too am having a hard time watching these finals, but I did catch bits of yesterday's game. The Pacers are beating OKC the same way they beat us. This style of going 10+ deep of fresh players is tough to plan for. You can plan to stop Haliburton and Siakim, but it's nearly impossible to plan to disrupt the Pacers offense.
Knicksfan wrote:You get talent, you develop it and strategically give them chances.It’s one thing I didn’t like about Thibs: not using his bench strategically while planting the seeds of possible impressive games from guys on the bench. To be fair to him, especially after hearing the Dadiet interview, I think he does a good job in training the basics to youngsters: discipline, defensive awareness, etc. But it is equally important to award good effort with playing time.
I think our bench was more talented than it showed this season and especially in the playoffs. Nobody perfect, so everyone comes with their weaknesses, but the skills they bring is good. Kolek with his amazing court vision and talent distributing the ball, Huk with a solid balance of competent offense and solid defense, Dadiet with a nice stroke, active body and tenacity on defense, the kids had tools to help us. They aren’t fully ready for heavy minutes, of course, but we have seen how important can a good 10-15min stint off the bench be to a team.
OKC and Indiana are prime examples of teams that develop and keep all their players active and engaged, making sure everyone is ready to help off the bench and maybe play more than they think. They are reaping the benefits from that in already being in the Finals.
I think that our next coach has to bring this mentality to the team. The front office needs to make sure we have talent everywhere and so far they have done that. These aren’t the times of not knowing who the 13th-15th guy is. It’s more about knowing that you have weapons that can help you maneuver a given game. We already have a solid starting lineup, especially when correctly aligned. And we have talent on the bench. We just need to better plan our season-long attack to reap good benefits once we get to the playoffs.
6/13/2025 5:21 PM
