Best move/worst move: New York Knicks

[loserX]

While others more insightful and thorough than I will be doing more comprehensive offseason reviews, I thought I'd do a quick-hitter series giving posters a chance to discuss for each team:

- what's the best move they made this offseason?
- what's the worst move they made this offseason?

All opinions welcome! And yes, "worst move" is negative in nature...but let's remember not to make it personal and not to take it personal. If you disagree with someone else's post about your team, what do *you* think was the worst move made?

(And yes, I know the offseason isn't over yet We can update these if any team does something particularly good or bad!)

Next up (alphabetically), the New York Knicks.

[loserX]

Best move: not doing anything Dolan-ish. Losing Porzingis to injury was a gut-punch of the worst order, but the Knicks didn't panic. There was no running around trading picks, no taking on massive salary for big-name but declining veterans. They took some smart swings in the draft (Knox, Robinson), and their FA consisted mostly of young talent needing new surroundings (Hezonja, Vonleh).

Worst move: expectations clearly aren't all that high in New York. Still, it would have been nice to see some sort of move for a PG, since relying on a surprisingly-unterrible Trey Burke is a bit of a gamble. At the very least they could have bought Utah's 2nd round pick (sold to Houston instead) and taken Shake Milton or something.

Still, the Knicks should feel pretty good about their sensibly quiet offseason.

[cgf]

Who’s relying on Trey Burke? If he doesn’t play well to steal the starting job from Ntilikina then he’ll come off the bench.

[loserX]

Who’s relying on Trey Burke? If he doesn’t play well to steal the starting job from Ntilikina then he’ll come off the bench.

I was under the impression that Ntilikina was going to be playing SG, not PG. Did that change? Maybe Fizdale is over that experiment already.

[bondom34]

Best: I like a lot of their moves, Knox seems like a decent pick and going younger on signings was smart. Taking the flyer on Hejonza was fine.

Worst: Can't really think of much. If they stretch Noah early its that, but they haven't.

[cgf]

Who’s relying on Trey Burke? If he doesn’t play well to steal the starting job from Ntilikina then he’ll come off the bench.

I was under the impression that Ntilikina was going to be playing SG, not PG. Did that change? Maybe Fizdale is over that experiment already.

Fizdale has talked about using multi-PG lineups if Burke (and/or Mudiay) play(s) well enough to play next to Frank, but having him play as a true off-guard was a Hornacek thing and his future is still as a PG who can defend 2s & 3s.

[SmokeyPaw]

Best: Draft. Both Knox and robinson looked very good in summer league. One thing that impressed me about robinson was how quickly he processed info defensively - aware and a quick decision maker.

Worst. Nothing significant really. No bad trades or signings.

[Rockazoids]

Best: The Draft getting Knox, Mitchell Robinson in the 2nd rd. & getting Allonzo Trier as a FA
In the Summer League
Kevin Knox 21.3 PPG 6.5 RPG 2.3 APG
Mitchell Robinson 13.0 PPG 10.2 RPG 4.0 BPG
Allonzo Trier 17.0 PPG 5.5 RPG 3.3 APG

Nothing: If anything I would say letting go of Troy Williams instead of Ron Baker. NY are short at the SF spot.
Also Troy Williams put up 11.8 PPG 4.0 RPG 1.2 SPG in the Summer League

[gom]

Best: I like all their signings for young players who have potential, especially Vonleh's. The Knicks did what I've been advocating the Heat to do.

Worst: I think this season is lost, so if there were any chance of getting Deng and an asset for Kanter or another player useful to the Lakers, they should have done it.

[Rockazoids]

Best: I like all their signings for young players who have potential, especially Vonleh's. The Knicks did what I've been advocating the Heat to do.

Worst: I think this season is lost, so if there were any chance of getting Deng and an asset for Kanter or another player useful to the Lakers, they should have done it.

They don't want Deng cap for next year. They are going to stretch Noah deal so why take on Deng & not be able to
shop for FA next year.

[gom]

Best: I like all their signings for young players who have potential, especially Vonleh's. The Knicks did what I've been advocating the Heat to do.

Worst: I think this season is lost, so if there were any chance of getting Deng and an asset for Kanter or another player useful to the Lakers, they should have done it.

They don't want Deng cap for next year. They are going to stretch Noah deal so why take on Deng & not be able to
shop for FA next year.

Well, imho, they don't need to stretch Noah either. Waste if you ask me. I doubt if the Knicks are challenging without Porzingis, so take some time and do it right.

[cgf]

Best: I like all their signings for young players who have potential, especially Vonleh's. The Knicks did what I've been advocating the Heat to do.

Worst: I think this season is lost, so if there were any chance of getting Deng and an asset for Kanter or another player useful to the Lakers, they should have done it.

They don't want Deng cap for next year. They are going to stretch Noah deal so why take on Deng & not be able to
shop for FA next year.

Well, imho, they don't need to stretch Noah either. Waste if you ask me. I doubt if the Knicks are challenging without Porzingis, so take some time and do it right.

Before KP signs his extension next summer will be the knicks only opportunity to sign 2 max FAs. And they will only have 2 more summers after that to sign a max FA before the other kids have to start getting paid.

So there’s not really any upside to not stretching Noah after September 1st. Doing so opens our Max FA window next summer and doesn’t impede us any of the following summers.

[magnumt]

Best move: not doing anything Dolan-ish. Losing Porzingis to injury was a gut-punch of the worst order, but the Knicks didn't panic. There was no running around trading picks, no taking on massive salary for big-name but declining veterans. They took some smart swings in the draft (Knox, Robinson), and their FA consisted mostly of young talent needing new surroundings (Hezonja, Vonleh).

Worst move: expectations clearly aren't all that high in New York. Still, it would have been nice to see some sort of move for a PG, since relying on a surprisingly-unterrible Trey Burke is a bit of a gamble. At the very least they could have bought Utah's 2nd round pick (sold to Houston instead) and taken Shake Milton or something.

Still, the Knicks should feel pretty good about their sensibly quiet offseason.

Excellent job my man! Have read most of the series and the work is very much appreciated!

For the Knicks,

• PG was probably their LEAST needed position ahead of Center. They're loaded at both positions and will likely have trouble finding minutes for everyone at PG & C.

• At PG, eligible guys include Frank, Butke, Mudiay, Baker, Trier. With others also capable ball handlers (like THJr, CLee, Knox, etc).

• Burke will likely (IMO) come off the bench in a 6th man role. Because of his elite Defense potential, Frank will likely start at PG and fits Fizdale's mold & style of Player better.

• Knox will likely end up getting the starting SF or PF job.

• They didn't have the room for additional bodies after signing Alonzo Trier to a 2-way deal (he was a STEAL IMO).

--Mags

[cgf]

You know how much I like Frank, and Burke looked like a good scorer for the bench for a couple of weeks; but loaded isn’t quite the word I’d use...

[DOT]

Best move: Doing pretty much nothing. For the first time in a while, it seems like we're actually starting to practice what we preach and looking towards drafting and internal development instead of going for the splash panic move. To be fair, the reason we didn't try to sign really anyone is we didn't have the cap space (thanks for Noah, Phil, and Tim, Steve), but we also didn't even get in on the Kawhi sweepstakes, no matter how much some people wanted to. Also, we went for low risk, medium reward signings in Mario and Vonleh, while letting vets like Jack, Beasley, and KOQ walk who were in the way of younger players

Worst move: Don't know if this counts cause we haven't done it yet, but stretching Noah on September 1st. I understand the reasoning behind it, we need the cap space if we want to be players in free agency next year, and with the stretch provision we'll have near enough a max, but why do it now? There's no reason to stretch him if we don't know for sure that we're getting a max FA to sign next year (which imo is doubtful, as players tend to value team success heavily when deciding where to sign), and if we don't get anyone we're stuck with 7 million on the cap for an extra 2 years instead of just being done with it the year after next, plus it puts pressure on the FO to make a panic signing if we strike out on the best FAs in order to justify stretching Noah. I believe that the player we're gonna overpay is Kemba, who is a good enough player, but I don't think he's good enough to give a max contract to, or that he'd be good enough to put our team over the top

[cgf]

Best move: Doing pretty much nothing. For the first time in a while, it seems like we're actually starting to practice what we preach and looking towards drafting and internal development instead of going for the splash panic move. To be fair, the reason we didn't try to sign really anyone is we didn't have the cap space (thanks for Noah, Phil, and Tim, Steve), but we also didn't even get in on the Kawhi sweepstakes, no matter how much some people wanted to. Also, we went for low risk, medium reward signings in Mario and Vonleh, while letting vets like Jack, Beasley, and KOQ walk who were in the way of younger players

Worst move: Don't know if this counts cause we haven't done it yet, but stretching Noah on September 1st. I understand the reasoning behind it, we need the cap space if we want to be players in free agency next year, and with the stretch provision we'll have near enough a max, but why do it now? There's no reason to stretch him if we don't know for sure that we're getting a max FA to sign next year (which imo is doubtful, as players tend to value team success heavily when deciding where to sign), and if we don't get anyone we're stuck with 7 million on the cap for an extra 2 years instead of just being done with it the year after next, plus it puts pressure on the FO to make a panic signing if we strike out on the best FAs in order to justify stretching Noah. I believe that the player we're gonna overpay is Kemba, who is a good enough player, but I don't think he's good enough to give a max contract to, or that he'd be good enough to put our team over the top

If they want to be rid of Noah before he rubs off on the kids they don’t have much choice.

And I don’t understand what the problem with carrying his cap hit forward is. If we strike out in 2019 we can just sit tight and still offer AD a max deal in 2020, or Giannis one in 2021, even with the Noah stretch still on our books. And it’s not like we’d have been able to afford two max FAs if we just waited until THJr expired in 2021. By that point KP’s max deal & our other kids would be too expensive for more than 1 max slot without another cap spike.

Doing it now just gets Jo out of the lockerroom asap and takes leverage away from anyone we trade Lee or THJr to who could try to Morey us.

[j4remi]

Best Move: Unless we're talking strictly roster moves, hiring Fizdale is the most important and everything looks really promising so far. He's the glue for everything else they did this offseason. From drafting raw but very talented players, taking shots on Hezonja and Vonleh to leaving the door open at PG for Frank, Mudiay or Burke to step up; it's all relying on Fizdale's development. Strictly players though, it's Mitch Robinson.

Worst Move: Stretching Noah will be the one I least like. I get why they're doing it, but it's still a tough pill to swallow.

[jvsimonetti0514]

Best move: drafting Knox. He wasn’t supposed to be a top 10 pick until he dominated his work out against Miles Bridges. He really worked on his ball handing and looks like a guy that’s going to be able to create. Robinson is a great pick too but that was more of a luck thing.

Worst move: not trading Courtney Lee. There’s no reason he’s still on the team. He’s only going to block some young player. Plus that extra year on his contract is gonna hurt the Knicks in free agency next summer.

[Ballerhogger]

There best move was drafting Knox their worst move was adding burkes. They did ok this off season

[Ballerhogger]

Best move: drafting Knox. He wasn’t supposed to be a top 10 pick until he dominated his work out against Miles Bridges. He really worked on his ball handing and looks like a guy that’s going to be able to create. Robinson is a great pick too but that was more of a luck thing.

Worst move: not trading Courtney Lee. There’s no reason he’s still on the team. He’s only going to block some young player. Plus that extra year on his contract is gonna hurt the Knicks in free agency next summer.

He’ll be gone by deadline try up his stock