Official 2017-2018 Knicks season thread

Markkanen is not better than Porzingis. He looks better, though because the Bulls use him properly. Running him off screens and having him take a large percentage of his shots from 3pt range is great. Meanwhile, Hornacek designed the offense so Porzingis could get 15 contested mid range jumpers a game.

Also, Porzingis is not a 4. Making him chase Markkanen or whoever off screens ruins the whole defense. It pulls one of the best rim protectors in the league away from the paint. But on offense he plays like a 4 which is why Julius Randle would be a perfect fit.

Randle is a great roll man and he's a very good perimeter defender that can switch 3-5. Having a 'new age' big man next to Pozingis would be so much better than a lumbering big man like Kanter or O'Quinn.
 
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nickmaz96 said:
Also, Porzingis is not a 4. Making him chase Markkanen or whoever off screens ruins the whole defense. It pulls one of the best rim protectors in the league away from the paint. But on offense he plays like a 4 which is why Julius Randle would be a perfect fit.
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QFT

That's why I hate having all these ******* centers on this team. Porzingis is great, but we are holding him back by playing him at the 4. His mismatch potential on offense is way greater at the 5 where he can pull centers outside and blow past them. He can also still shoot over any center in the League due to his length.

Only thing it would really hurt is his post game, but running offenses through the post is outdated anyway and slows the team down. Plus Porzingis will never be a banger down low, it's not his game. As long as he can shoot over people in the post, hit that Dirk-fade occasionally, and maybe incorporate a hook shot, we'll be alright.

Honestly, if it were up to me, I'd like to get rid of both Kanter and Willy and just play KP at the 5 with a banger like KOQ backing him up. IMO from watching this team play, KP would be averaging 10 boards a game easy as a full-time 5.

Seeing the comments in here after last night's game is crazy.

Claiming Frank can't play in the League at any point in his rookie season is insanity. The guy was drafted to be a project. It's not like the Knicks had Frank valued as a top 10 pick and every other team thought he was a scrub. The guy was a top prospect on every single draft board and has been a very highly touted Euro prospect for years leading up to the Draft with a ton of intelligent scouts watching him very closely.

You gotta give him time. You might as well claim that Fox, Monk, Josh Jackson, Isaac, etc. etc. cant play in the League either, along with countless other top players in the League today who were projects coming into the League such as Giannis, Dirk, Lowry, PG, Draymond, etc. etc. Even guys like D'Angelo Russell and Oladipo weren't as much "projects" but took awhile to come into their own and were given up by the teams that drafted them (Oladipo traded twice) only to really come into their own this season (Russell's 3rd, Dipo's 5th).

Maybe Frank will be a bust. Idk. It's impossible to tell right now. But that's precisely my point.

Giving up on him now and jumping to the conclusion that he can't play in the League is absurd. It's literal insanity. So is comparing him to Jerian Grant, who was drafted as a supposedly very polished 23 year old college star who many of us, myself included, expected to start at PG as a rookie, not a 18 year old project from France.

Frank has the tools to be not just a great player, but a legitimate franchise PG who can do things most other PGs can only dream of due to his physical tools. It's potential. It's unknown whether he fulfills it or not, or somewhat, but it's there. His ceiling is very high. Jerian's never was but he was expected to be solid from day one and have a high floor. That's a MAJOR difference.

He obviously has the requisite length/physical gifts. His defense is already basically at an elite level, he has shown tremendous court vision on offense, and his jumper, like many Euros before him, will likely come with increased confidence and familiarity. It's not like he can't shoot considering his form is nice and he was a 40% 3-point shooter in France last year.

Maybe these tools will never materialize. Maybe Frank doesn't reach his potential. But you gotta give him time to come into himself. He was never supposed to come into the League and dominate. Porzingis' "project" label was an completely overblown by media members who don't follow the Draft process closely, but act like they do, and give that label to any Euro they didn't watch play in the NCAA tournament.

But KP had a diverse/advanced offensive game from the day he was drafted, he was a year-older than most prospects after backing out of the 2014 Draft, and he put up very solid numbers, better numbers than many of the top prospects his age had in NCAA completion, in the best basketball League outside the NBA. But Porzingis was an anomaly not the rule.

Frank was a legit project. Like so many Euros before him that they even started to stereotype Euros like KP who don't warrant that label. A young player with incredible physical tools and signs of tremendous potential but still very young and raw without a ton of production on the international stage statistically speaking. And that's ok. Many players like him had gone on to be incredibly successful in the NBA and given Frank's tools, his ceiling is higher than most of those guys outside of Giannis.

You want to compare Frank to Jerian, which is short sighted and foolish, but the much better Knicks comparison is Gallo. If you remember it was the same kind of deal with Gallinari. A total project who was constantly injured and showed basically absolutely nothing his rookie season, less than Frank has for sure, only to become a reliable starter averaging 15 PPG his sophomore season. He was well on his trajectory to potentially be the all-star talent we hoped he would become before injuries mounted up and held him back from being the player he was capable of being.

Y'all gotta give Frank some time. If he doesn't give us something more next season than it might be time to get a little concerned but as of right now it's all about appreciating the process and enjoying the flashes he is able to show us, of which there have been many that are completely overlooked every time he has a bad night or goes through a rough stretch. My hope is for Frank to become a very solid full-time starter next season and jump to the status of being an upper-echelon starting PG on his way to an all-star trajectory by year 3. But his rookie season is about development and development involves bumps in the road.

And as far as Markannen is concerned, dude is definitely polished offensively and a great shooter but I wouldn't necessarily call him "more polished" than KP, although I admit it's close. Their offensive numbers from their rookie seasons are very similar. However, Lauri isn't even close to being the defender KP is. That's what really makes KP's potential so enticing. It's the combination of becoming a potentially transcendent offensive player with a vast skillset who can also protect the rim and serve as a defensive anchor.

KP has averaged around 2 BPG every year of his career so far. And that's come with mostly playing the 4. He is very active around the rim on defense and his freakish length and athleticism give him just as much potential as a rim protector as he has on offense. Lauri is currently averaging .5 BPG. He is destined to be a stretch 4 his entire career who doesn't have the athleticism to match up defensively with a lot of the stretch 4s today who are basically SFs considering the 3 has become an extra guard position these days.

He will have to be somebody you hide on defense. KP is leading the League in blocks right now with 2.3 a game but that obviously gets overlooked every time he doesn't shoot the ball well. KP's potential isn't being the next Dirk. Dirk honestly would have a tougher time today with the way the PF position has changed. KP's potential is having a Dirk-light offensive game with more athleticism and Tyson Chandler's rim protection skills.

That's something that hasn't been done and that's what makes KP a much more special prospect than Markannen. But please, continue to trash the player we were showering with MVP praise because he's hit a wall from carrying this team on his back to an overachieving start and shot the ball poorly in a game where Lauri shot it well. He also has had a tougher time getting good looks with increased defensive focus and no Hardaway.

It's the same exact deal as we had the past few years with Melo. Low percentage shots will equate to low percentage makes no matter how talented you are offensively. KP is starting to witness that first hand and that is due to a combination of fatigue, increased defensive focus, lack of perimeter options without THJR especially, and lack of creativity with the offense to get him better looks.

Basically the point of this rant is these guys are still young. Instead of obsessing about every little negative, we should appreciate the positive signs our young players show. We can obsess about the negatives when we are an older winning team (if that ever happens) but for now the negatives should be expected so appreciate the positives, there are many.

Sorry for the rant, honestly didn't expect to write much going into it. (shrug) :lol:
 
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If for some reason the Hawks don't extend Mike Budenholzer he has to be priority #1 for us
 
I don’t think Frank is the pg of the future. I also don’t think he’s a bust, saying he can’t play in this league is wildly inaccurate. He has the tools to become a great perimeter defender, so why not allow him to focus on that?
 
nickmaz96 said:
Dave Fizdale
Mark Jackson ( :rolleyes)
David Blatt
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David Blatt will be our next coach. Book it. Princeton buddies with cockroach Steve Mills. :smh:

Ideally Budenholzer leaves ATL during their rebuild and we get a coach as close to elite outside of any of the proven elite coaches who aren't leaving their respective teams (Pop. Carlisle, Brad, Spo), but we're the Knicks so no shot that happens. Too many moving pieces. 1- Bud has to leave. 2- The Knicks have to be smart. Can't rely on the 2 together happening, I give it 10% tops.

We can always just give a ******* treasure chest to JVG, Raiders style. It's all Dolan's money anyway. :pimp:
 
frank compared to kris dunn in his rookie yr
dunn was also 3 years older with a couple yr's in college

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