Breaking: KAT to the Knicks

[BKlutch]

Watch on YouTube

This was a very positive video, showing a strong preference for KAT over JR on defense and showing him as a better fit for our offence, although he actually says JR is better offensively. I'd like to hope he's right. Leon has accomplished wonders, so I'm not going to let my sadness over losing DiVo ruin my appreciation of this deal.

[DaGawd]

KAT and OG are huge injury liabilities. Together they will make over 90 million a year for the next four years. We can’t back them up with reliable bigs since we have no cap flexibility nor enough draft picks or youth. We turned two high minute rotation players to one who as I said can’t rely on to survive a whole season. In the process, we managed to downgrade our defense if that was even possible, downgrade our offense as we lost two creators and gained none. Despite the good looking three point shooting, I believe we downgraded our shooting as well with the loss of DDV. This is a massive loss. Anyone who thinks this team is better than last year, I have bad news for you.

good thing we brought in the healer doctor from dallas

[Context]

After 46 pages - one thing is for certain...has this front office let us down? I would say in "context" no!

[shrink]

I imagine many Knicks fans are worried about Towns national image as “soft.” I responded to a poster on the Wolves board, and I thought some of you here might get some value from it.

alright wolves fans… explain to me just how soft kat is, be real

National media spreads this story because they don’t like Towns antics. He has had some bad games in previous play offs where the moment was a bit to big for him (as has Ant). I think they magnify it because of Towns histrionics on foul calls. It should make you feel better that Towns has worked on that, and received zero technical fouls all last year. The Wolves don’t get to the tough Western Conference Finals last year without KAT.

Offensively Towns is a tough match up, and I doubt anyone thinks he’s soft. He still flails his arm too much, but he can bang in the post and shoot threes on the perimeter. Defensively, he was mislabeled soft for years because he was bad at drop coverage. It wasn’t that he was soft against his man, and he always put up good numbers in opponents FG% at the rim, and he was always a very good rebounder. The problem was that KAT would break drop coverage to rush out to meet the many opponents who got around the Wolves porous perimeter defense, and those guys would make an additional pass to a cutter, with Towns out of position. The last three years, Finch has played KAT out from under the rim, where he likes to be, and he’s been an above average defender.

[BKlutch]

I wonder what the Venn diagram is for the "I hate the Brunson trade" and "I hate the KAT trade"

Probably looks like a circle

A circle with a tiny dot in the center that, when zoomed all the way in, looks like a buzzard.

[ctorres]

Donte wanting out feels like a plot twist we totally missed, but we should have seen it coming all along.

Donte wants to get touches, make buckets, and more money down the line. He has 3 years to get his value up so the next time he is a free agent, he can score one big contract.

Playing with the Nova boys, Randle (or KAT), and OG meant that he was gonna be lucky to score even 9 ppg.

His last 50 regular season games, Donte averaged over 19 ppg his last on 44/39/77 shooting splits on just under 16 shot attempts per game.

Why would Donte give that up just to share the spotlight with the Nova boys? For the feel good story?

Donte knew the politics. He was never gonna be on even footing with Brunson, Hart, and Bridges. He is getting out of their shadow.

Maybe Donte feels he has no shot at an allstar selection or spot on Team USA playing with those guys.

At this point in his career, I think Donte values individual accolades more than an NBA Championship. If he stays relatively healthy in his career, he can be a role player later on a contending squad

Right now is not the time for Donte to be a role player.

[Zenzibar]

Watch on YouTube

This was a very positive video, showing a strong preference for KAT over JR on defense and showing him as a better fit for our offence, although he actually says JR is better offensively. I'd like to hope he's right. Leon has accomplished wonders, so I'm not going to let my sadness over losing DiVo ruin my appreciation of this deal.

Yes, I agree, good analysis.

I do think however that our need in the front court, (although I still believe that Sims is starting next to Towns), Julius' contract (which, for all we know hit a snag with Jules asking for his bag and Rose hesitating to a signing this off-season) and Divo losing tons of minutes to Mikal and Deuce, made this trade inevitable.

We'll miss Divo because of his personality, shooting and grit. But our window get to the Finals is now before other Teams load up in the coming years.

Makes me wonder though, if Rose was planning for this move for a Jules/Kat swap, regardless of Mitch's situation. Only because Payne's and Shamet's signing to offset Donte's void from the outside.

[NiceLikeChrist]

iHart boneheaded move to OKC cooked this entire team. now we get to play 5 out, everyone standing around at the 3 while brunson pounds air out the ball.

Towns can't create like Julius. This season was gonna be the most weapons around him ever, he was gonna avg 8+ assists so easily.

Yeah, we are gonna miss Randle’s playmaking significantly.

Ya know KAT is one of the best passing bigs in the league?

In what sense? Randle is a premier shot creator and commands a double in the post and anywhere inside the arc really. He got teammates wide open 3s all game long and the shot charts prove how much he enabled our shooters. He was going to have an insane number of 3 point threats around him this year.

KAT is a good passer? Averaging 3 assists on a stacked team? It looks to me like KAT is the ball stopper everyone thinks Randle is. I don’t trust KATs ability to create for himself and others. I feel like we are going to heavily rely on Brunson to do nearly everything when one of the best things about Julius was that he was able to do everything too and that’s takes pressure off Brunson. We lost that.

We now only have one single reliable creator

[NoDopeOnSundays]

I’m hoping we can tap in to KAT’s post work instead of just jacking up 3s all game. He’s pretty damn good when he’s playing like a big man instead of a fake KD.

He had to play more like a wing because of Gobert, with us It should be a mix, we really should be able to do a lot of what the Celtics do with KP, where he spaces most of the time and the rest of the time they mismatch hunt and if you switch a small onto him they go to the post. Every game there should be an obscene amount of screens set for Brunson by KAT, imagine how Ihart used to do it except now there's an option for the guy at the top of the key to let it fly.


I expect Precious to start at the 4 next to him, keep the size and still be 5 out.

[TheGreenArrow]

Brunson
MIkal
Hart
OG
KAT

closing lineup will be crazy....you can even run Hart as the screener for Brunson and if we hit him in the short roll he is great at reading the defense with 3 elite shooters spreading the floor.

Picturing maxey and embiid putting KAT in PnR d in the final mins of a playoff game. Yuck

Towns guarded Jokic and Kd excellently in the playoffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ain't worried about him guarding Maxey and Embiid Guannyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Brunson
MIkal
Hart
OG
KAT

closing lineup will be crazy....you can even run Hart as the screener for Brunson and if we hit him in the short roll he is great at reading the defense with 3 elite shooters spreading the floor.

Picturing maxey and embiid putting KAT in PnR d in the final mins of a playoff game. Yuck

Towns guarded Jokic and Kd excellently in the playoffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ain't worried about him guarding Maxey and Embiid Guannyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk to him Greenie!!

[WargamesX]

no need anymore


Mitch is a backup and that IS his best role on a winning team

I don’t know who is the PF?

OG

Sent from my SM-S9080 using RealGM mobile app

I hear you but I had time to think about it and I still don’t like the fit depending on the matchup. Especially if you consider that KAT isn’t going to be fighting for rebounds or doing the grunt work the defense needs from the Center position

Brunson/Bridges/OG/Precious/KAT

Works way better and moves Hart to the bench which desperately needs him because right now Mcbride is the best bench player on the team. Is it too late for Derrick Rose to un-retire!

[Knick4Real]

KAT and OG are huge injury liabilities. Together they will make over 90 million a year for the next four years. We can’t back them up with reliable bigs since we have no cap flexibility nor enough draft picks or youth. We turned two high minute rotation players to one who as I said can’t rely on to survive a whole season. In the process, we managed to downgrade our defense if that was even possible, downgrade our offense as we lost two creators and gained none. Despite the good looking three point shooting, I believe we downgraded our shooting as well with the loss of DDV. This is a massive loss. Anyone who thinks this team is better than last year, I have bad news for you.

good thing we brought in the healer doctor from dallas

Him and the big man coach from Detroit are about to become invaluable!

[BKlutch]

Yeah, we are gonna miss Randle’s playmaking significantly.

Ya know KAT is one of the best passing bigs in the league?

In what sense? Randle is a premier shot creator and commands a double in the post and anywhere inside the arc really. He got teammates wide open 3s all game long and the shot charts prove how much he enabled our shooters. He was going to have an insane number of 3 point threats around him this year.

KAT is a good passer? Averaging 3 assists on a stacked team? It looks to me like KAT is the ball stopper everyone thinks Randle is. I don’t trust KATs ability to create for himself and others. I feel like we are going to heavily rely on Brunson to do nearly everything when one of the best things about Julius was that he was able to do everything too and that’s takes pressure off Brunson. We lost that.

We now only have one single reliable creator

Jesus, man, you really need to rethink this.

[KnixinSix]

Watch on YouTube

This was a very positive video, showing a strong preference for KAT over JR on defense and showing him as a better fit for our offence, although he actually says JR is better offensively. I'd like to hope he's right. Leon has accomplished wonders, so I'm not going to let my sadness over losing DiVo ruin my appreciation of this deal.

Thats a sweet breakdown. Knicks last year beat Boston. Our defensive intensity is so high level. Add Bridges and more minutes for McBride and this team has an excellent chance to best them with most players healthy.

[2010]

Randle wanted to get paid. Donte wanted out cuz he didn’t want to sacrifice for a reduced role (when everyone’s healthy). So now all disappointment in Donte being included is gone. He wasn’t with the culture and didn’t put the team before himself.

Brunson made the ultimate sacrifice monetarily. Donte didn’t get the memo on sacrifice. Randle likely didn’t either. Front office did what they had to do and got the best possible return.

[Spree2Houston]

Donte wanting out feel like a plot twist we totally missed, but we should have seen it coming all along.

Donte wants to get touches, make buckets, and more money down the line. He has 3 years to get his value up so the next time he is a free agent, he can score one big contract.

Playing with the Nova boys, Randle (or KAT), and OG meant that he was gonna be lucky to score even 9 ppg.

His last 50 regular season games, Donte averaged over 19 ppg his last on 44/39/77 shooting splits on just under 16 shot attempts per game.

Why would Donte give that up just to share the spotlight with the Nova boys? For the feel good story?

Donte knew the politics. He was never gonna be on even footing with Brunson, Hart, and Bridges. He is getting out of their shadow.

Maybe Donte feels he has no shot at an allstar selection or spot on Team USA playing with those guys.

At this point in his career, I think Donte values individual accolades more than an NBA Championship. If he stays relatively healthy in his career, he can be a role player later on a contending squad

Right now is not the time for Donte to be a role player.

He’ll be coming off the bench in Minnesota as Anthony Edwards’ backup

[jvsimonetti0514]

I def see the vision and Leon has earned the benefit of the doubt but I’m just bummed we’ll never get a chance to see nova Knicks with a healthy Randle. I didn’t love the OG trade at first either so my skepticism probably means nothing but we really had something special before this move and I wanted to see it. We replaced a lot of our good depth with guys that have one foot out of the league. Just hope we aren’t gonna need Shamet or Mook a lot cuz idk how much they can really help. Who am I kidding, we’re def gonna need these guys for minutes.

Just think we’re going to miss Randles facilitation from the post. Apparently he’s top 3 in finding guys for corner 3’s. Kat is def more efficient than Randle is but I’m still not sure if he’s a better players. Def don’t think he’s better than Randle and Donte together. Being able to play 5 out is really exciting but will we be able to defend enough to actually use it as weapon? Think we’re gonna see a lot of line ups with Kat next to Mitch and precious and hopefully it’s enough to cover for Kat.

[BKlutch]

Monica is great in this video about the trade.

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/41483223

The printed analysis from ESPN is just meh.

[Im Coming Home]

I liked Bates-Diop as a backup depth behind OG and Bridges.. especially since OG is injury prone.. damn.