Phish Tank wrote:Lemme ask you one thing then: What would it have taken for the Knicks to get an A-B+ grade? If we're trying to tank and position our team for a tanktastic year, would we get an A-B+? If we trade Melo, do we get an A-B+? What if we didn't even sign THJR?
Obviously not all are equally important but:
1) Not wasting money -- 24m to Phil and 100k to Plumlee is just not wise. If you are being graded on how you use your resources, using them poorly doesn't help even if it is only money.
2) Buying 2nd rounders -- as I noted in the review you had 4 picks between 35 and 50 sold and the Knicks could have used up to 8m but bought zero picks. 3m of that is now expired and cannot be spent, so they missed an opportunity to get a chance at a better basketball product and choose not to even though they spend money elsewhere like it doesn't matter. It is easy to pick on Phil -- and reports that he fell asleep during a draft combine workout don't help -- but regardless of who was at fault the Knicks had a resource that they should have spent and didn't.
3) Dumping vets -- yes a Melo trade may be coming. Hopefully... And maybe it will include Lee and Lance and who knows else. But based off the rumored deals it doesn't sound like it, and Melo has a hefty salary as is making it tough to include more. I would have been aggressively shopping particularly Lee. Bottoming out as a bottom 3 team versus being the 5th-8th picking team is something that makes a huge difference usually, so the more aggressive pursuit of this goal was needed. And maybe Lee could have returned something a rebuilding team could use -- probably not the lotto pick one fan insists but something.
Portland ultimately did Crabbe for Nicholson and 21m in dead money. Would they have done #26 and Crabbe for Lee? Maybe not but I definitely would have asked.
OKC with Kanter for Lee and Kyle O'quinn. Shaves off 12.8m in year 3. And maybe Kanter is an interesting front court partner for Porzingis while Noah recuperates.
Lee + 2nd for Asik + protected 1st would be amazing, but even Lance for Ajinca starts to clear some room.
See if anyone will give up a 2nd for KOQ?
Perhaps nothing special was lost, but I would have liked to see the ball rolling in some regards, with the goals to:
Get worse
Get marginal draft assets
Get salary cap flexibility
in the future.
4) Salary cap usage -- Knicks used 16.5m on THjr, and then full room exception on Baker.
Salary dump deals done:
-- While the Knicks didn't have the pieces to make a Russell trade with that Lakers, I will also say that Russell seems a bad fit so that isn't as much a lost opportunity.
-- Atlanta got the Houston 1st for taking on Crawford (and Stone).
-- Nets got Toronto 1st and a good looking 2nd for taking on Carroll (and even got to dump 3m in deadweight).
I would have done either of these deals. Both players are off the cap after two seasons, while the pick will be entering its 2d season then, timed perfectly for when the Knicks should be using cap and getting better and having youth to grow with Porzingis then.
Alternatively:
McRoberts and 5.1m cash and 2nd for Hammons
Corey Joseph for rights to guy never coming over.
These deals were both expiring contracts. The 5m in cash and a 2nd is nice, while the talent gap between Joseph and Hardaway isn't one I would pay the extra money for Hardaway especially when it means a possibly 4 year commitment.
Basically I question that Tim Hardaway Jr is the guy you want locking down sg for the next 4 years at that price tag -- so rolling over cap space in and of itself isn't a bad idea. But getting paid to do so within the time frame that works would be better.
With that much cap space in general, I think you ultimately want either guys who fit a youth movement or guys who will really help you win now. The youth that might have been worth it weren't switching teams in general, but that doesn't mean you spend it all on the next best young-ish guy.
It might not have worked, but offering 16.5m to Noel instead I would have liked more. But I see a lot more potential upside there, and maybe I'm biased. Costco shopping on McLemore I would have liked better than paying Tiffany's prices for Hardaway.
Maybe it will come with Dotson and that is why Baker is unofficial but last year the Knicks and Nets just signed undrafted rookies to one year deals instead of using cap room and offering them a signing bonus to sign up for more future cheap years. Doing that prevents things like Baker from becoming a free agent and getting 3 times his worth, so I would make sure to have some room and have signed some guys as end of bench fliers. Maybe 9 in 10 fail but you fail every time you don't try.
So, yeah, there is a lot I would have liked more than that contract and the Baker one as well.
5) Draft at #8
I've read on here how the preference for DSJ over Frank was based off summer league. I've read on here that the preference was based off not having seen any of Frank. I've read on here that the preference was just because Phil picked it so it must be wrong.
I haven't seen anyone who took the time to read why and actually respond to the reasons raised why. Instead, I've seen those straw men comments applauded and high-fived. Which is seems at odds of having a decent discussion on a fundamental level although I guess others feel different..
I wrapped up my take on #8 in the trade board thread:
I think Phil should have picked the pg that fit Porzingis best (assuming no big tier gaps between prospects). So it is not so much that I had Frank in a different tier (I might have also), but as a much worse fit with the player that the Knicks should have been shaping their offseason around.
And in the review I went in a lot of detail about what I saw Porzingis benefitting most from:
focus on the offensive compliment to Porzingis and tighten the defense from top to bottom later
I went further and expanded upon why:
This is what I wrote last season here:
2016 offseason wrote:Porzingis. Porzingis growth is what the team really needs and will rely on going forward.
Where does it come n the offensive side? Last season, 225 of Porzingis 1028 points last season came as a spot up shooter, scoring with the efficiency of just the 25.9 percentile.
164 roll man (64.4 percentile)
138 post up (44.8 percentile)
135 cuts (33.9 percentile)
100 putbacks (83.8 percentile) Maybe this is why they got Rose and Jennings?
76 transition (20.3 percentile)
75 off screens (45.9 percentile)
52 isolation (40.9 percentile)
8 points ballhandler (cannot be significant 18.1 percentile)
The spot up shooting hopefully can improve its efficiency, but the real question I would have is can you get a pg and play the pick and roll like Stockton and Malone with that player and Porzingis for the next decade? I don't think that is Rose at all. If not, can Porzingis develop a post game? It wouldn't be my first choice, and Melo Rose and Noah don't seem like a setup to do so. Porzingis might just spend this season shooting more jumpers, and as a third option behind Melo and Rose (who loves to eat up possessions), which is not what I would have liked ideally. Instead, I would be looking at Porzingis and seeing if there is any way to mold him into a first option that can create versus a complimentary player that just scores off others.
I recapped this previously, but last season saw:
1196 total points distributed with:
265 spot up (58.0 percentile)
201 roll man (54.6 percentile)
135 post up (30.5 percentile)
149 cuts (80.0 percentile)
72 put backs (23.4 percentile)
130 transition (50.2 percentile)
103 off screen (67.5 percentile)
67 iso (28.1 percentile)
So, some better spot up shooting and a little more roll man offense, but not enough for what I would be looking for. Here is where I think DSJ driving relentlessly would have made sense, and try to mold Porzingis into one of the best pick and roll partner in the league. Or if not, at least have Monk spotting up and getting Porzingis space (in a triangle like three man game with Melo perhaps?). I'm not sold they have done enough to set up a path to first option for Porzingis, but hopefully I'm just being too low on Frank Ntilikina and his ability to break down a defense.
So, I guess I throw those questions back out to everyone who is busy celebrating that DSJ was only liked because of summer league:
-- Should the guy picked at #8 be targeted specifically on who fits best with Porzingis development? How big of a tier difference would be needed to pick otherwise?
-- Is Porzingis offensive development more important than his defensive development at this stage? If not, what does he need for defensive development?
-- What sort of offensive skills/sets/play types should Porzingis be working on developing and what sort of teammates would help best here?
Or we can discuss how overrated summer league is. While it wasn't a topic in any of the reviews, I would definitely agree that it usually is in more ways than one.
6) Attitude and image mess and the Melo drama.
At the end of the day, players might not care about this. It will wash away shortly enough most likely. But the team just went through an image mess and that doesn't help when you have the chance to be a part of the premier free agent destinations discussion.
Publicly shaming Melo into approving a trade didn't just not work, it alienated Porzingis. All the Melo talk should have been behind closed doors, not to the point the union is asking to look into the legality of Phil's comments.
And then when Porzingis became upset, instead of putting him in his place and shopping him, Phil should have apologized and made it right. The good news was this helped finally get Phil fired. But the team should be about growing Porzingis into a superstar as best as possible (or pairing him with one to grow with), and instead the moves and even the rhetoric haven't felt like that was the goal.
Getting a Melo trade done or having everyone sound happy is definitely needed. And once a Melo trade happens (if?) there will be some re-examination of the grade. But for now the way the situation has been allowed to fester and become toxic is not good, although it didn't particularly have a huge effect.
The reshaped front office might help, but right now so far the only impression is that Mills can spend oodles on TH jr, so it is hard to give credit until a clear chain of command has been established and is functioning. But the potential of that is why I gave a + on my grade.
I'm sure other things as well, but just to give a small smattering of ways in which they could have done things differently.