KnicksGadfly wrote:stuporman wrote:WTF is wrong with some people...projecting all sorts of ill will on players to satisfy your fan delusions. I have never seen any reported bad energy from DMitch towards other players or excuse making about failures and by all accounts is a well liked teammate and player around the league.
I tell you what, DMitch wants to be in NY so badly and would do anything to fit in he'll go back to finish getting his degree at Villanova and start eating Mike and Ike by the barrel full. He'll even tell the media at his introduction press conference that he only came to NY to help Brunson win the finals MVP.
I was half in and half out on whether I thought he'd work but with all the trashy takes about him people have I've been convinced he's the right final piece. All you dumpster juice spewing fans will have to file the apology form in triplicate and it still will be rejected.
...and you will like it.
Honestly, when you wrote that, it kind of reminded me of the hate towards Quickley (only Mitchell was never a Knick). IQ gets traded, boom, lots of fans want to hate him. That pissed me off...don't think he deserved that, after what he actually gave to this franchise. So I get you a bit. I think my only response is to share why I think the fans on this forum have such strong feelings about Donovan Mitchell.
Donovan Mitchell is a bit complicated. I think when the news about the Knicks potentially trading for Mitchell broke, most posters were hyped and I would say that almost all posters were excited. We had just signed Brunson...most of us thought he was good, but not a star. We had Randle, who was coming off a bad season. The turning point, however, was when the Knicks refused to give into Danny Ainge's outrageous requests...that led to a split within the forum. Also, it didn't help that Mitchell, who apparently wanted to be here, put little pressure on the Jazz.
At that point, there were a lot of arguments on both sides, but what I saw was a lot of ill will (maybe the right word is negativity) poured towards this team when we didn't overpay for DMitch...that, to me, was the worst. It made logical sense to me. DMitch is not a 1A. You don't pay that price for DMitch, because it hampers you and if you screw up, you end up like the Cavs (Scott Perry alluded to this in a podcast). Lots of threads saying the Knicks were too cheap, didn't want to pay what he deserved, etc etc. Mitchell scores 70 on a bad team..."I TOLD YOU SO." Even last year, when the Knicks were about to face the Cavs in the playoffs, there were some posters getting ready to crow "I told you so" about DMitch because they thought the Cavs were about to wipe the floor with the Knicks, who then proceeded to win pretty handily, with Spida performing badly. So over the course of a year, and over a year, the Mitchell non-trade hung over our heads.
I think the Knicks were vindicated in that decision, though. Part of it was luck...I think Brunson became greater than anything the Knicks could ever hope for, and he really did show himself to be better than Mitchell. Part of it was the Knicks being savvy...many of the pieces we kept were moved for OG, who has shown himself to be the perfect fit.
So, I really don't think it's all ill-will towards Donovan Mitchell. To me, it's basically a reaction to the Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes. When the Knicks rejected the trade for Donovan Mitchell, it shined a light on Mitchell, his strengths and his flaws. Every poster had to ask themselves, was Leon Rose right or wrong to reject that deal? In the end, I believe Leon Rose was right. And if I believe Leon Rose is right, it's because I believe that Donovan Mitchell has some flaws. The posters in this forum, because we debated Donovan Mitchell so much, kinda know him more than the average RealGM fan. We basically followed him a year post-trade. But, like you said, that type of analysis doesn't really take into account character or who DMitch is.
The other thing is the rise of Jalen Brunson. He's our guy. We know who he is and we want to build around him. We have our own basketball philosophies. And many of us who are fiercely loyal to Brunson, don't think Spida is a fit. If Brunson wasn't so good, I think the forum would probably be talking about how Leon Rose screwed up that trade
Maybe you are a fan of Mitchell. I don't blame you. But I believe a lot of the fans on this forum are letting that fandom cloud over whether Mitchell fits with Brunson and the Knicks. Maybe you think that's unfair. But, as a Knicks fan and someone who appreciates Brunson, I just don't think he fits. I think it would be a mistake to try and make up reasons to pair them together, when there are much better potential pairings.