Broken record on this so I apologize, but it just makes me want to pull my hair out of my damn head.. I'm able to forget about it for a little bit but then something will trigger it again -- Thibs coming out and saying Randle will play some 5 (I mean in moderation, I guess, but what happens when Mitch ends up on the shelf?), the Lakers signing Christian Koloko (WTF on this? How were we not in on this guy?? To me, as long as he's healthy and the blood clot issue is behind him, which it looks like it now is---VERY HAPPY FOR HIM BTW---I look at this kid as Mitchell Robinson with an even higher ceiling)...
FOR THE LIFE OF ME I can't understand why we haven't properly addressed the C position, even right before we lost Hartenstein to OKC. I mean we had such a bold, great off-season, but the roster truly feels unfinished w/o properly addressing the 5 spot, I'm sorry.. SMH, there's no doubt about it...
And it's not like we haven't had options along the way here.. Look I don't give two **** how good Dadiet ever becomes, there's no way anyone can convince me that we shouldn't have taken Kyle Filipowski at 25 instead... They have no way of knowing how good Dadiet is gonna be -- it was a complete wild card, shot-in-the-dark draft selection. This dude was only 18 on draft night, and a Frenchman no less, a Euro... I mean that's who you take in the draft at 25 knowing there was what, probably a 99% chance we were on the verge of losing Hartenstein?? We were hearing those OKC rumors for weeks.... And it was never about loosing Hartenstein for me -- ok np, thank you for your service big guy. No way we should've (or could've) offered that amount of money, so no sweat.... Don't even blame him one bit for taking that deal. Good for him, he made the right decision any of us would've made. But what the hell was the contingency plan then????
I don't even care that Filipowski's "not a real C" -- that's all baloney. Come on man, a 7 footer with his skills?? Knowing you're about to lose Hartenstein (and with the uncertainty surrounding Julius too I might add -- how is Ju gonna look after coming back from shoulder surgery? When will he be ready? When will Mitch be fully healthy and ready to go for that matter?? Back to uncertainty surrounding Randle -- what do we really have at the 4 position should we decide to move Randle? And come on man -- whoever would sit there and look you in the eye and tell you that they would chose Harenstein over Filipowski (in terms of skill set/skill level, overall talent, ceiling, etc.), needs to have their head examined. In that comparison, it's Filipowskil all day every day with no hesitation for me. This guy was an absolute GIFT that dropped in our lap at 25 and we said, nah... What???? NAH?!?!
Another thing I bet we could've worked out -- this discount we worked out in our favor to sign Dadiet for a little less -- now I don't know all the particulars, but does anyone else feel we could've easily worked the same thing out with Filipowski at 25 as well?? If not, someone please explain to me why we couldn't have...
How about all the quality low-cost options we poo-pooed along the way here as well?? Thomas Bryant, Goga Bitadze, Jay Huff?? Then to hear we low-balled Omer Yurtseven??? i mean come on man, what are we doing????
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Ok rant over... Now that the Laker's officially signed Koloko, apparently to be AD's backup with Chrisitan Wood out, a guy I'd like the Knicks to keep an eye on is 6"11' C
Colin Castleton... It came down to 3 guys where the Lakers were going to have to cut one of them to make room for Koloko -- Castleton, Blake Hinson and Armel Traore. They wound up waiving Hinson... So we know they obviously like Castleton, question is how much exactly? Maybe not as much as some have speculated since they went out and made this move for Koloko, right?
I see real potential here with Castleton -- he's big enough, very active around the basket scoring with good touch with both hands, I think he'll rebound enough, and he's a legit shot-blocker. Take a look at his college shot-blocking numbers, specifically his last season at Florida -- 78 blocks in 26 games:
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/colin-castleton-1.html...He's also shown some semblance of a jump-shot too if left open (I think he'll only developing it further moving forward). He reminds me of Jay Huff, maybe a small tier below since the jumper's not as pure as Huff's at this point, but very similar otherwise... We should've pounced on Jay Huff, esp. after the summer league he was having, but what's done is done now. Memphis signed him and they waived Trey Jemison in order to do it...
There's probably zero chance of this happening, I get it, but how about calling the Lakers up and inquiring about Castleton? Seeing how we don't quite have what it takes to get a guy like Walker Kessler, maybe we do have enough to trade for Colin Castleton. How about something small like Jacob Toppin and one of those protected 1st round picks we still have for Castleton (which we all know will prob. both turn into 2nd round picks by the time they convey)? That would be two-way player for two-way player so the money swap works perfect (both returning two-way players btw -- I could be wrong but I believe Ariel Huckporti and McCullar are new additions and may not be able to be traded until December, but Toppin and Castleton are returning players. Not enough to get Kessler but could it be enough to snag an undrafted player like Castleton? And I'm not trying to sell this guy short mind you -- I really like what I see. I think he's may have a higher ceiling than Hartenstein as a player to be perfectly honest with you.
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