FVV Amen Jabari KD Sengun Adams Reed Tari This is our top eight. This is the exact same top eight we ended the summer and went into last season with, in 2025. Out of 30 teams in the NBA, do you know how many teams are rolling with the exact same top eight guys again? Two teams. The Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder. After the season we had, how does that possibly make any sense? (Someone will argue: "well, FVV tore his ACL.". That just makes this same group worse!)
Yes!! I do think Stone is not necessarily a “cheap talent” GM but more so a “exploiting market inefficiency” guy. He can’t be a cheap talent guy because he’s not good enough at assessing talent. But trying to “zig” where everyone else is “zagging” is probably one of his strengths. The problem with this current situation is the market inefficiency they landed on was “two bigs controlling the glass” which was good enough to yield 50+ wins during the regular season, but the better teams over a 7 game series COMPLETELY EXPLOITED the other problems that having multiple non-shooters who can’t defend the perimeter create. Not saying to scrap it, but it’s probably only going to take you so far.
it really is inexplicable. Pick a freaking direction. Either try to contend with KD or reset and build for the future. Don’t just trot out the same guys who got embarrassed by the Lakers B-Team. What is this? How is anyone supposed to get excited about the season?
The Knicks broke a lot of popular tropes about how to win a championship. People thought you needed a generational superstar. I don't think their stars really qualify. People thought you need to build through the draft. Almost none of their players were drafted, they traded their prospects and draft picks away for immediate help. This isn't a new development though. There have been eight different champions in the last eight years and each one took a different path. There are many ways to skin a cat. With the 2nd apron and lottery reform the old ways of winning might be over. You can't rely on tanking anymore IMO. Stone is going to need to be very lucky to get a generational player in the draft now. And with 2nd apron penalties being so severe I'm not sure you can pay multiple stars fair market value. Brad Stevens alluded to that in the Jaylen Brown trade. Teams used to be able to surround two superstars with quality role players with only luxury tax to worry about. That is no longer the case. The talent for cheap approach might be the only thing that's in our favor right now. When guys like Austin Reaves and Paolo Banchero are getting paid $40M+, Sengun's $33M contract next year looks like a godsend. If we use some of our draft capital on affordable contributors (New Orleans is asking for three FRPs for Trey Murphy and we have seven picks in the next five years) and either Amen or Reed take a leap, we might be able to compete just by the sheer fact that we can afford to keep our team together. The young generational talent via draft approach just seems so unlikely at this point.
Morey did the same thing. Look where that got him. In both cases when the goal is so unique/specific - to exploit game's inefficiency - you end up disconnecting from fan base, players and eventually ownership (esp if said ownership cared enough to win championship) So eventually we'll be rid of Stone. Spamming threes and controlling the glass will be our legacy with those two GMs
At first, I was Ok with the two timelines and thought it really had no negative effects, on the court it doesn't - it's in the accumulation of assets that it matters. If this so called "young core" (when are we gonna stop calling them young?) isn't good enough on their own, we'd be collecting lottery picks. As it stands now, Durant has carried them out of the lottery into no man's land this season. Without KD that roster probably struggled to win 35 games. The season before it was Fred and Dillon who shouldered the load. They pulled this flawed team out of the lottery where they belong. What we saw against not only a bad Lakers team but an injured one at that was that "the young core" isn't the core of anything other than the core of the "can't shoot brigade." This offseason, I'd have put every last one of them on the market and stacked as many draft assets as I could get my hand on. I'd rather reset than run it back like the Les and Morey years before they lucked into Harden.
I don't see a scenario where this doesn't happen. Unless FVV is off the roster or injured. Someone convince me otherwise, please.
Falling into Harden likely wouldn’t happen again, but Morey was masterful at turning $0.25 into $0.30 which put us in a position to get Harden. Stone on the other hand held onto the draft assets, pivoted to Phoenix’s failure once it became obvious that the odds were against getting Flagg, and drafted players that were high on the national media’s mock draft boards.
Wrong. Bruson was an allstar this season and avg 26+ppg this season and got final MVP. If he has a few more seasons like that, he'll clearly be in the HOF discussion. He's playing that good. Prior to that, the last time any team didn't have a HOF player on it was in the 1992 Pistons (but even then Ben Wallace was eventually inducted to the HOF but he's not in the same category as Dream, Shaq, Duncan, etc). Interestingly, both that Pistons team and this year's Knicks, both had super effective smallish, stocky PGs that were really smart floor generals. Currently, the Rockets have KD as their HOF player. Funny enough, the Rockets have 3 pg prospects to fit that Chauncy Billups role; FVV, Reed, and Thorton. None of them is ready to take over as our Billups or Bruson.
This is another one of those dumb narratives.....Even if we had FVV last season, 5 of the top 7 MPG would have been players 24 and younger. Then you have Adams, Okogie, and Clint rounding it out. If you actually go by who is playing the most minutes, then the identity is the young core. Or you can be ignorant.
I think Brunson will be a HOFer, but I don't think the generational superstar label applies. Towns has averaged 25/10 several times in the past and people don't put him on the Shaq/Dream/Duncan tier either. There are levels to stardom. People thought you needed an MVP to win a title because Lebron/Duncan/Kobe/Curry kept winning them for like 25 years. This year's Knicks team feels an underdog team like that 2004 Pistons squad even if their talent level is a bit higher.
