The New York Knicks are hiring CAA’s William Wesley as Executive Vice President/Senior Advisor

[Mecca]

other than wiseman, these guys are barely top 10
picks in any other draft.

LaMelo is a top 6 guy in every class.

Anybody care to give me a brief overview of his game and what level of player he’ll be like.

I wrote this a month ago:

https://medium.com/@drewacam/while-lamelo-ball-is-only-a-few-short-months-away-from-having-his-name-called-at-the-2020-nba-f5841f1caf1c

[Nazrmohamed]

Man, Killian might go top 4 as well. If Lotto gods aren’t nice to us, you absolutely trade a future pick to move up. This is not the draft to stick at #6.

Oh yeah, RJ should be expandable in another trade in the near future. Winning with his skill set is going to be very tricky.

this is also the draft you don't move up since it's not good.

I dont get this logic. The better the draft the better the prospects are wherever you land. The worse the draft the worse the prospects as you get further down the draft therefore you DO trade up to get to the smaller grouping of elite prospects.

And for me the knicks have 7 picks in the next 3 yrs and about 4 of them are late first rounders. What's it to me to swap pick 6 for pick 3 for example and the things that get me there are a couple late first rounders?

Especially after hiring guys who most likely would trade those picks anyway for guys you and I know will be near stars, not superstars. Might as well shoot for the stars on draft night.

[blueNorange]

because outside of being able to pass the ball at an elite level, lamelo is below average at everything else -- oh and his father is going to speak his mind on what the team should be doing.

if he's drafted great, but all the prospects are heavily flawed.

[Mecca]

because outside of being able to pass the ball at an elite level, lamelo is below average at everything else -- oh and his father is going to speak his mind on what the team should be doing.

if he's drafted great, but all the prospects are heavily flawed.

Elite ball handler, elite at using his off hand around rim, elite in PnR. Just admit you didn’t watch him.

[blueNorange]

because outside of being able to pass the ball at an elite level, lamelo is below average at everything else -- oh and his father is going to speak his mind on what the team should be doing.

if he's drafted great, but all the prospects are heavily flawed.

Elite ball handler, elite at using his off hand around rim, elite in PnR. Just admit you didn’t watch him.

i watched enough to know that if he wasn't flashy, nobody would give a **** about him.

knox would go 2nd or 3rd in this draft.

[thebuzzardman]

I suddenly want the Knicks to draft LaMelo more than ever.

[Mecca]

because outside of being able to pass the ball at an elite level, lamelo is below average at everything else -- oh and his father is going to speak his mind on what the team should be doing.

if he's drafted great, but all the prospects are heavily flawed.

Elite ball handler, elite at using his off hand around rim, elite in PnR. Just admit you didn’t watch him.

i watched enough to know that if he wasn't flashy, nobody would give a **** about him.

knox would go 2nd or 3rd in this draft.

lol no

[Billy Goat]

Star-chasing over proper team building.

Relationships over analytics.

Flash over substance.

We haven’t yet reached the bottom. This is not going to end well.

Hiring was a direct response to Durant saying players dont see the Knicks as "cool"

[blueNorange]

I suddenly want the Knicks to draft LaMelo more than ever.

i wouldn't hate if they drafted him, let me make that clear.

just this nonsense of moving up to take him is absurd bs, nobody in this draft is worth moving up for -- not in a weak draft.

you don't accumulate draft capital only to trade it away for heavily flawed talent.

[thebuzzardman]

I suddenly want the Knicks to draft LaMelo more than ever.

i wouldn't hate if they drafted him, let me make that clear.

just this nonsense of moving up to take him is absurd bs, nobody in this draft is worth moving up for -- not in a weak draft.

you don't accumulate draft capital only to trade it away for heavily flawed talent.

If it cost 1 low first round pick, say a Mavs pick, I'd do it.

[blueNorange]

Elite ball handler, elite at using his off hand around rim, elite in PnR. Just admit you didn’t watch him.

i watched enough to know that if he wasn't flashy, nobody would give a **** about him.

knox would go 2nd or 3rd in this draft.

lol no

this isn't how debates work in your profession.

tell me why lamelo won't be a guy that's just good at passing and terrible at everything else, because as of right now he's terrible at everything else.

unless you like uncontested fadeaway shots off one leg?

[blueNorange]

drafting lamelo is all about projection, the hope that he grows and bulks up and ends up becoming a 6'10" 220 point forward ala giannis.

if that's the pitch then i sign up for that, but don't make him out to be the can't miss guy when he's not even top 3 in a historic weak draft.

[Zenzibar]

I suddenly want the Knicks to draft LaMelo more than ever.

i wouldn't hate if they drafted him, let me make that clear.

just this nonsense of moving up to take him is absurd bs, nobody in this draft is worth moving up for -- not in a weak draft.

you don't accumulate draft capital only to trade it away for heavily flawed talent.

If it cost 1 low first round pick, say a Mavs pick, I'd do it.

The Mav's 2021 unconditional #1 pick? In that 2021 loaded draft and with KP historically injury prone?
Just to grab a tremendously flawed point guard with no dam jump shot whatsoeva.

[blueNorange]

trading a future first pick to for lamelo is as bad as trading a future pick for bargnani or curry.

if the knicks are in a position to draft him, perfect -- but if they're not, there's other players that present the same high risk/high potential as lamelo presents.

[Mecca]

i watched enough to know that if he wasn't flashy, nobody would give a **** about him.

knox would go 2nd or 3rd in this draft.

lol no

this isn't how debates work in your profession.

tell me why lamelo won't be a guy that's just good at passing and terrible at everything else, because as of right now he's terrible at everything else.

unless you like uncontested fadeaway shots off one leg?

Man, I wrote 2,000 words on him already:

https://link.medium.com/DRIr1FkXG7

[Mecca]

drafting lamelo is all about projection, the hope that he grows and bulks up and ends up becoming a 6'10" 220 point forward ala giannis.

if that's the pitch then i sign up for that, but don't make him out to be the can't miss guy when he's not even top 3 in a historic weak draft.

No it ain’t. He plays nothing like Giannis

[thebuzzardman]

i wouldn't hate if they drafted him, let me make that clear.

just this nonsense of moving up to take him is absurd bs, nobody in this draft is worth moving up for -- not in a weak draft.

you don't accumulate draft capital only to trade it away for heavily flawed talent.

If it cost 1 low first round pick, say a Mavs pick, I'd do it.

The Mav's 2021 unconditional #1 pick? In that 2021 loaded draft and with KP historically injury prone?
Just to grab a tremendously flawed point guard with no dam jump shot whatsoeva.

I was thinking the 2023

[newyorker4ever]

I mean, he hired LEON ROSE. It's another example of chasing a star name exec, and obviously his biggest selling point is that he's connected around the league, which is safe to assume he's here to lure and close the deal around "stars", which for the Knicks, has never really worked out well.

So, we are back to a variation on the Phil hire. We hope that Rose has enough juice and cred for Dolan to leave him MOSTLY alone, and that his bball acumen, or those of people he hires, works out for the positive.

It's also realistic to imagine it all goes horribly south.

This seems a decent take to me. However, Rose seems griftier than Phil, so if it does go south it may be pretty bad.

But P.Jackson wasn't willing to put all the work in that needs to be put in to show the free agents how much you want them. Phil wouldn't even go fly to the away games or fly to meet with all the free agents that he would need to to show how bad he wanted them. It won't, or shouldn't, be any issue with Rose and his people to put all the work in that will be needed to show the players how much they want them. Rose won't fall asleep during workouts with the draft prospects either..

[thebuzzardman]

I mean, he hired LEON ROSE. It's another example of chasing a star name exec, and obviously his biggest selling point is that he's connected around the league, which is safe to assume he's here to lure and close the deal around "stars", which for the Knicks, has never really worked out well.

So, we are back to a variation on the Phil hire. We hope that Rose has enough juice and cred for Dolan to leave him MOSTLY alone, and that his bball acumen, or those of people he hires, works out for the positive.

It's also realistic to imagine it all goes horribly south.

This seems a decent take to me. However, Rose seems griftier than Phil, so if it does go south it may be pretty bad.

But P.Jackson wasn't willing to put all the work in that needs to be put in to show the free agents how much you want them. Phil wouldn't even go fly to the away games or fly to meet with all the free agents that he would need to to show how bad he wanted them. It won't, or shouldn't, be any issue with Rose and his people to put all the work in that will be needed to show the players how much they want them. Rose won't fall asleep during workouts with the draft prospects either..

Right. So there's the part where it might work out. Rose would seem, clearly, to be the more diligent, harder working guy at this point in their careers. The similarity of hire is Dolan always having to have the biggest name over the (possibly) better fit/idea.

I'd say a legit concern, one I'm personally not that concerned about, but others have raised it, is that Rose's hire has a lot to do with being able to close the deal on free agents, so there is concern the Knicks will swing too hard to the "get the established vets/get the FA star" and kind of short circuit the rebuild, such as it's already been.

So the hope is, sort of splitting the difference on those takes, is that Dolan leaves Rose pretty much alone, based on his "big name" credibility, and Rose and those he hires turn out to be competent front office types and make the right kinds of moves. Either with a youth emphasis, vet emphasis or a blend - which I think is the most likely.

We shall see.

[newyorker4ever]

Rose/Wesley hirings are directly out of the Knicks playbook. Drum up buzz because the executives have apparent "relationships" with the megastar players only to lose out on them in FA...and the fans buy into it because they were "close" to landing Lebron, Giannis, etc. This is just going to be a landing zone for mediocre CAA clients...neither Rose or WWW have ever run a draft or a scouting dept. Drafting well and finding value in FA is how you build a roster. This charade of big game hunting has always been a farce.

But Perrin, Perry, Aller, Zanin and the other Zanin and the others Rose has hired, or kept around, do have plenty of experience.