The draft went according to plan and maybe even better. Obi and Quickley were clearly the 2 targets of this front office (LaMelo Ball notwithstanding) and they not only got Toppin but did so without having to make any moves, he fell in their lap. Big win for the front office so far. Then we got to free agency...

It’s hard to say at this point if this is how the front office planned it. They have been exceptionally quiet and we probably can assume that’s by design. It seems like they never even attempted a VanVleet deal, Gallinari, or any other semi-big assumed targets. Hayward was in play, but ultimately there’s no way they were going to pay him anything near what we got.

The knicks have made 3 boring moves so far. Burks while a boring acquisition is actually a very good pickup. He’s better than Bullock or Ellington and can shoot and make plays from the wing. The issue with him has always been health, but he’s low risk. Noel is a fine backup for Mitch. Payton coming back is a bit frustrating for me because of the lack of shooting, but my guess is he’s still a fail-safe for the team that doesn’t trust the other guards on the team.

So what does it all mean? Well the Knicks still have 25 mil or so in cap space if you count Payton or Noel having contracts that can be absorbed into the MLE after using up all the space. This front office seems to be doing 2 things; letting free agency come to them, but even more importantly, i think they are maintaining this flexibility for a big trade in the next week or so. Maybe Westbrook, Wall, or Rozier come to mind. Maybe there’s a couple surprise names out there that will come up. Or maybe this post will age poorly and the Knicks blow all this money some other way. But I expect the Knicks have held off on spending because something big is brewing.

My main concerns are bringing back Payton as a starter and still not addressing the shooting concerns. Maybe they feel like Burks, Bullock and Quickley on the wings, plus replacing Randle with Toppin at the 4 addresses the spacing issues, but doesn’t seem like enough. We will see. I think the main takeaway here is this cap space will likely be used and it may not be in free agency. We will see.

They still need to find some more shooting. Right now, Quickley and Burks are the only players that can shoot the 3 and spread the floor. Might need to see what Bullock looks like after his recovery. We need more shooting though.

Curious to see how NBA ready Quickley is. With his shooting and length he might be finding minutes very soon (quickly?) out of Ntlikina’s minutes. He looks like he is a perfect match to Barrett.

Rose has made a lot of organizational changes since becoming team pres.. Glad he decided to keep Perry at GM. They seem to make a good team.

unstopaball12 wrote:Still hate the Payton signing with us having Frank and DSJ, not unless we trade DSJ for a good player, this move is a head scratcher.

Cant say its because of Payton's familiarity with the offense. We have a new coach. My guess would be Payton's familiarity with some of the remaining players. He ran the old offense, he might help the team transition to a new offense more quickly.

For one year, its not a big gamble. And the contract will be easy to move, if we upgrade the position, or if Frank or DSjr really steps up.

TheGame wrote:The Payton signing is a signal that the Knicks plan to trade either Frank or DSJ now or at the deadline. That is the only way that signing makes sense. If we can turn DSJ into a high second round pick, I would do it now. The rest of the signings were solid small moves that improve our bench. I like this approach. Let’s running it back with the young guys and see what this team can really do under competent coaching.

I don’t necessarily see that..I see them needing a vet point...DJ got the bag so ruled him out and Teague probably wanted a winning situation if he was not going to get the bag...very simple...Payton came cheaper than what Mills signed him for...also we now have a competent coach which will make things better...I still don’t think Payton is starting...I think the FO wants to see what they have with Frank...DSJ...and Knox with competent coaching..

TheGame wrote:

ekstarks94 wrote:

TheGame wrote:The Payton signing is a signal that the Knicks plan to trade either Frank or DSJ now or at the deadline. That is the only way that signing makes sense. If we can turn DSJ into a high second round pick, I would do it now. The rest of the signings were solid small moves that improve our bench. I like this approach. Let’s running it back with the young guys and see what this team can really do under competent coaching.

I don’t necessarily see that..I see them needing a vet point...DJ got the bag so ruled him out and Teague probably wanted a winning situation if he was not going to get the bag...very simple...Payton came cheaper than what Mills signed him for...also we now have a competent coach which will make things better...I still don’t think Payton is starting...I think the FO wants to see what they have with Frank...DSJ...and Knox with competent coaching..

I can see your point. Perhaps they are just trying to spend as little of the cap as possible to preserve their ability to leverage their cap space to facilitate trades for other teams and accumulate assets, which is the approach I have wanted the team to take for awhile. Overall, I like the moves as they indicate that the team is finally going to focus on developing the youth instead of pushing minutes on low tier vets just to try to win a few more games.

100% I think that the FA process shown us two things: 1) They are not going to be frivolous with the cap 2) They are betting on their coaches to make up a bit of the difference from an on the court perspective. I still think the team has less talent to run with the middle tier teams..but that is me looking at this now and for the past couple of years with bad coaching and lack of internal development....who knows with adequate coaching putting individual players in a position to succeed we may see our youngsters in a much different light outside of RJ and Mitch

There are no financial commitments on this roster and there is def some talent worth working with. Everyone wants shiny new objects. We got one... Obi. Hopefully Thibs and his staff prove to be the same and that yields some of the guys I mentioned above blossoming under this staff