Knicksfan1992 wrote:Was thinking last night before bed about how much our offense truly misses Donte and how the change from Donte/Randle/IHart to Mikal/KAT has fundamentally changed how we approach offense. We've become a much slower, methodical team in the halfcourt IMO but have gained much more consistent tough shot making with less reliance on offensive rebounds to keep our offense afloat. This should, in theory, translate better in a playoff atmosphere than last year's offense did but does provide it's moments of frustration. It's an interesting dynamic and one that has drew the ire from some fans as making us too predictable/stagnant on offense. The Knicks have tried to piece together DDV's "let it fly" approach by encouraging Deuce to shoot more, signing Cam Payne who is a willing gunner, and one thing that I think has helped the offense "look better" recently is Shamet being much more willing to let it fly a la DDV last season which is what we signed him for.... Since Brunson went out, Shamet has upped his 3 point attempts per game to 3.8 in 20 minutes a night. Roughly equates to 6.8 per 36 minutes. Before Brunson's injury Landry was at 5.7 per 36. We need this trend to continue IMO. Last year, DDV was at 10.8 3 point attempts per 36 and it was a key part of keeping defenses honest.
Given all that info, I was thinking how we can get a better replacement for DDV this offseason that allows Hart to move to the bench. Tough task.
The simple solution may be inserting Deuce into the SL. Deuce is at around 7 threes attempted per 36 which is not quite DDV level but a decent facsimile. My concerns are that a Deuce and Brunson backcourt is extremely small. Deuce's shot is not nearly as consistent as DDV's. Leaving Deuce off the bench may hurt it's ability to produce anything in lieu of the starters. Rebounding could become a major issue without Hart (you may have to just live with this no matter what if KAT is C and OG is PF). I wouldn't hate if teh Knicks went this direction next season. I don't think Thibs will agree. You probably would need a coaching change IMO.
So I tried sorting by some key metrics from DDV's Knicks season to see who may potentially fit. Since DDV's 3 point attempt rate was extremely outlier high (70%!!!) I lowered that to 60%, at least 6 3pa's per 36 minutes, I went with height of at least 6'4" since it seems Thibs values having a minimum height requirement next to Brunson, 36% and above on 3's, and at least 1 "stock" per 36. These are the results of the players who I think would be "realistically gettable" this offseason:
(Note I don't support trading or acquiring all of these names. Just trying to get an idea of who would fit the mold of DDV on offense while being enough of an "event generator" on defense)
Donte DiVincenzo (obviously lol)
Keon Ellis (would be an amazing trade target IMO)
Luke Kennard
Taurean Prince
Garrison Matthews
Brice Sensabaugh
Dorian Finney-Smith
AJ Green
Georges Niang
Grayson Allen
Sam Hauser
Malik Beasley
Derrick White (only reason he's realistic to me is because the Celtics basically may have to cut salary this offseason otherwise I don't think he'd be here.)
Buddy Hield
Max Strus
Gary Trent Jr.
We've seen the Knicks linked to a few of these names before. Some of these guys would fall in the mold of decent 10-20 mpg a night. Others may be able to be full time starters:
If I had my druthers I'd really be calling Sac on Keon. Strus may be slowly getting squeezed out of Cleveland. He'd be an interesting target. GTJ will be a MLE candidate. Beasley too.
If we get a new coach (or even if Thibs is still here) I could see the line up next year being Mitch-KAT-OG-Bridges-Brunson with KAT taking on DDV's role of green-light gunner. Their shooting is comparable (last season).
That moves Hart to the bench in a 22-minute role where he'd be more effective IMO. We'd have Duece as the 7th man. Then we'd use Huk as Mitch's back-up. Then the 9th man could be any one of several guys: Wright, McCullar, Dadiet, etc. If we stand pat and just extend Mikal, we're still in great shape with a new coach at the helm. Let them cook.
RIP mags
