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Broadway Barrett

On the cusp of 20/6/3 on shooting on 41/35/71 splits RJ Barret, the Duke of York is evolving into a player who can handle the offensive keys coming into the league. Efficiency has been trending up, especially in recent 30 point stretches but it’s not as if he’s had the experience nor the empowerment to be the number one option in NYK.

Now numbers can be bent for any narrative but if you watch the tape RJ has been adding wrinkles to his game. With an unmatched work ethic and more room to grow, his growth he’s already experienced you can expect him to bring a new skill both to start the year and as the year plays through. The thing is with said added offensive responsibilities, he’s having trouble maintaining the defensive player he’s been with less usage. It’s a lot of responsibility and stamina to initiate offense so as a season wears on, there’s going to be missed assignments and lacking effort at times.

This season has been a different than how the large majority of the fan base felt based on the previous seasons. Some of that magic in a bottle qualities the team had wasn’t something that was captured to be tapped into for the variety of changes both in personnel and health. Different talents made it hard to fans and Thibs to be on the same page on where minutes should be aligned and really maligned the fans against Thibs. His arguably worst quality would be in talent evaluation and figuring out creativity in his rigid system. It’s also not to dismiss his talent as a coach and having well more information than any fan would have, it’s more that humans love to point out hypocrisy and offensively, Thibs is limited.

The talent on the roaster needs to learn through experience which could be ugly at times for sure. It’s a lot when there’s conflicting feelings and other politics that could be happening in the locker room as well so it’s far from easy to implement but more than easy to comment. Navigating that is the job of NBA coaches and it’s fair to critique him for lacking or not being as flexible in a tension filled situation of the New York spotlight. With imperfect roaster alignment and a few directions the team being pulled in, my hope is we get a roaster around our best player, RJ Barrett.

This won’t be numbers filled and will work as a primer for the post mortem on the 21-22 season as the post season whirls through. I may not be able to imbed videos, but I’ll link any game tapes and give times for anything I’m transcribing about.

Until the Post Season~

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The WAY TOO EARLY Playoff Predictions [Knicks] [W]

I find some enjoyment getting into the weeds about things; however, I want to put as much into this as it may deserve since we’ve not seen any of these teams play yet and there’s been quite a bit of turnover. First we’ll touch on the West before we bring it back home and cover the Knicks and their place in the East.

**- League Pass Team

Western Conference 2020/2021 Playoff Standings
1. Los Angeles Lakers- They won last year, and got better. Early finals favorite
2. Denver Nuggets**- They beat the Clippers last year & they’re better than last year
3. Dallas Mavericks**- KP injury may bring them down, but they’ve re-tooled to give Luka an environment to spawn forth an MVP season
4. Phoenix Suns**- With CP3, the ascension to superstardom in Booker, and how underrated Ayton is, they’re poised to surprise
5. Portland Trailblazers- They’ve retooled and got healthier, could look like a more fluid Houston Offense
6. Los Angeles Clippers- Two MVP caliber players, and while they’re worse, one or both can lead them to close out close games
7. Utah Jazz- All eyes are on Donovan after signing the max extension, no reason he won’t lead another playoff birth
8. Truth be told, I could see any team in the west outside of OKC competing for this 8th seed, but my 3 most likely would be the Grizzlies**, Pelicans**, and the Warriors**.

Eastern Conference 2020-2021 Playoff Standings
1. Philadelphia 76ers**- Doc’s 1st year, with Daryl in a new home and a newly remodeled car team that excel both their stars’ skill
2. Milwaukee Bucks**- The Bucks are better but so is the top of the East
3. Miami Heat**- Moves at the margin but they were just the Eastern Conference winners. Assuming their rookies continue their growth, as competitive as any roaster in the NBA
4. Boston Celtics- Kemba injury news along with Hayward leaving for Charlotte leave them being a bit worse off, but match up against all the teams below them well
5. Brooklyn Nets**- Kyrie and KD. They will be equal parts amazing and underwhelming w/ how many games they’re going to play together or not
6. Charlotte Hornets**- Hayward’s impact is very much role/team dependent but if you look at the Utah teams he lead, and this one, CHA is better and more cohesive
7. Indiana Pacers- The Oladipo drama wasn’t faux and while he may be closer to 100%, thus making their team better, that drama will fester in season downturns
8. Similar to the West, I can see few teams there, although for not the same reasons as the West. The west has more good teams, and the East has more finals contenders, and it’s fair share of bad teams, but not many distinguished “good” teams. My top three choices for making the 8th seed are Orlando, Washington, and Atlanta.

Now these opinions are made with the roasters as they are on December 1st, 2020. My three surprises are Phoenix as a 4-seed, Houston reduced to regulation, and Charlotte showing out with Hayward. As a Knicks fan in the extremes of the eastern conference at the top and bottom, the vacuum for the latter playoff seeds should be more up in the air. There’s also a chance of higher draft odds with so many teams wanting to compete.

Knicks Notes:
Cleveland & OKC are in full rebuilds, Houston maybe to follow if they trade their stars. Knicks and Detroit’s decisions seem to indicate they’re suggestable to change. They both said they were competing last season too. It amounts to an ability to have a top 5 pick if you don’t have the talent to close out games tank. The issues is this ignores the damage it does to a team psyche. Compete and let the chips fall where they may, especially with the new draft odds. With the Knicks staff, I see them believing, “Why can’t we walk and chew gum at the same time?” Especially with a young man like RJ Barrett who’s upset and motivated by his All-Rookie team snub. Noted gym rat, his love for basketball can seem to border on obsessive, and just how strong he is. His body is NBA ready and he’s not done growing into it yet. My excitement is greatly tempered by fit Obi and Payton. Baring a trade, and the tension between him and RJ, this would greatly dampen the potential for our young players to grow.

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Knicks Uncategorized

The 2020-2021 Knicks Roaster Prediction [L]

As we’re on the cusp of a shortened free agency in the year of Our Lord 2020 anything is possible. With around 20m of cap space left, NYK is in the possession to take on contracts for picks, which they’ve already begun. The line-up is hard to predict so some players will be omitted because I believe there’s a chance they’re either not here at game one, or by the trade deadline.
My Starters – Ntilikina, Quickley, RJ, OBI 1, Robinson
My Bench – Payton, Rivers, Evans, Randle, Noel
My Reserves – Knox, Powell, DSJ, Bullock, Spellman
No issue being wrong but there’s one low hanging fruit for an “if” situation I could think of.

If the Kings want to keep Bogdanovic and match the Hawks offer sheet…

NYK Receives – Corey Joseph (12.6m*/2yrs), Kings 2021 2nd Rd
Kings Receives – DSJ (5.6m/1yr)

This gives the Kings the ability to just be under the cap one more year before the Fox extension kicks in. Unless there’s some other cap-positive moves made, they won’t likely be under the cap for the following 5 years with that extension. The Knicks get the better version of a veteran point making Payton another bench point to maybe flip for another 2nd at a similar contract value and contract length.

It’s early, but maybe the weather is changing in the Garden. While gathering future second round picks isn’t the sexiest thing to do, on some level, acquiring assets is necessary for being able to pack offers for disgruntled stars. Now it’s not as simple to have the ability to but to also have a structure in place that is attractive to those stars as they leave less prepared teams.