Wsup? Who's ready for Training-Camp?

What changes does coach Hornacek make?
Is it true no more triangle.. or will Rambis still experiment .. or is Hornacek on his own?
Will Mills/Perry give Horn direction concerning certain players in training-camp?

What does our PG rotation look like .. Frank, Baker, Sessions and Jack?
Do any of the invited guards makes the team .. Jaramaz? XRM? Randle?

Will Melo start the season .. or waiting on a trade asap? or will Melo be looking to move the ball and playing shorter minutes (28 minute per game)? or will Melo be working individually to get his shots off?

Who starts at center .. What role does Noah fit in .. Will WHG get a chance to be in a lineup alongside Noah?
Will coach Horn let Noah lead a couple of halfcourt offensive plays from the top?
Will our strong-forward KOQuinn receive real playing time .. or is Quinn valuable trade bait?

What's Lee's role?
Will Dotson get some minutes?
Will Lance Thomas receive more minutes than he deserve?
Kuz, Lance, Beasley... who wins those minutes?

if KP shows a willingness to rebound, at least on the defensive end, then we'll probably see him playing a decent amount of minutes at the 5. if not, they're going to have another big out there with him who can do that job.
they're probably hoping that nitty and dotson turn out to be exciting and promising, for obvious reasons. but other reasons include frustrating melo to the point where he's willing to be traded for almost any playoff-bound team by ASB. if nitty and dotson show up, and KP and baby-gasol continue to do their thing, horns will probably lessen melo's minutes, especially if he seems not too thrilled with running up and down the floor constantly.
jaramaz, xavier and randle will probably be assigned to westchester.
my money is on dotson raising some eyebrows. i wouldn't be surprised if nitty impresses, but he was a 1st round pick so that's not much of a stretch.
i predict nitty and jack playing together for stretches, sessions and baker perhaps playing for stretches.
if horns is going to implement an up-tempo style of play, we have to assume the slower guys who can't quite keep up won't be playing as much.
to me, the big question mark is kuz. i'm getting the feeling him and lee are going to be included in some kind of trade for picks. but we'll see what the needs of other teams dictates down the stretch of the season.

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Steve Mills, Scott Perry and Jeff Hornacek sat next to one another at a news conference on Friday morning, presenting a united front of top decision-makers as the Knicks prepared for the start of training camp next week.

But amid all the changes the team has undertaken in recent months, this year’s camp is set to begin in the same way that the last regular season ended — with the spotlight on Carmelo Anthony, the franchise star, who, many agree, would be better off with a different team at this advanced stage of his N.B.A. career.

So while the Anthony situation remains unresolved and has the potential to yet again become a distraction for the Knicks, Mills, Perry and Hornacek maintained to reporters that everything was fine.

But several hours after all three said Anthony would be welcomed at the start of training camp next week, ESPN reported that he had named two more teams he would accept if the Knicks could trade him: the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Perry wrote BLOG/essays for the Knicks team’s website that listed a handful of young players (KP .. WHG .. THJ .. Frank .. Baker) whom they see as part of the team’s new core but that neglected to mention the 33-year-old Anthony at all.
The mention players does not enhance optimism for the upcoming season.
Commissioner Adam Silver mention "we have the fix for NBA tanking (and it isn't the lottery)".
It merely decreases the benefit of being truly awful -- like 20-62 awful

Reminder post Melo, OKC Oct. 19 is the Knicks season opener. That has to a nationally televised game if it wasn't before.

tiger0330 said:

Reminder post Melo, OKC Oct. 19 is the Knicks season opener. That has to a nationally televised game if it wasn't before.

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it will be on TNT, and i will be watching eace:

and1 said:

it will be on TNT, and i will be watching eace:

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Me too ..

When Noah come off of suspension .. My best rotation to start the season .. having so many new players on the roster .. we should have two separate lineups in a 11 man rotation to be fair to the players mixing well together to form a team .. A Big-man Line-up, and a 3-guard line-up.
The Atlantic division of Boston, Raptors, and the new 76ers will be a tough battle for us throughout the season .. Horford n Kyrie, then Ibaka n Lowry, then Embiid n Simmons.

Noah (Team Leader)
Quinn
Beasley
Lee
Session
Combo 6th-man THJ/KP .. coming off the bench
8th Frank
9th Kanter
10th Jack
11th WHG
12th Lance Thomas

My starting/2nd unit lineup for opening day.

Kanter/WHG
Porzingis/Quinn/Beasley
THJ/LT/Beasley
CLee/Jack
Sessions/Frank

Who to start, huh?

PG: Jack, Sessions, rookie or second yr man?

SG: has to be THJr, no? What about Lee?

SF: has to be Beasley, that is unless we go with Lee here.

PF: KP

C: Will probably be Kanter, until Noah returns... but what about WHG?

Where do KOQ, Kuz, Dotson, LT fit in?

man, i'm not EVEN going to try and set up a line-up and rotation yet lmao until i see some pre-season games. but it is something i've been wondering about, even before the melo trade.
when it comes to the bigs and where some of these guys fit in. i might play around with having the Q play some PF alongside... who? you know the starting PF is going to be KP, so there's no point in even debating that. but i really don't like the idea of him being out there playing next to kanter to cover the front court. their styles of play can compliment each other on offense, but when it comes to defense? yeesh, that might be disastrous. ideally, KP starting with noah would be the way to go. so I suppose kanter comes off the bench and you can have the Q and WHG playing with him. man, i don't know.
assuming beasley is the starting SF, kuz and mcBuckets are going to have to battle it out for the 2nd unit.
baker may end up being the only guard who gets either no minutes or a small number of minutes, which would be kind of awkward given the contract he just got.
horns is probably going to be running a lot of small ball. i have no idea. pre-season, we need you!

I can't believe you guys are looking forward to a season where the big question is whether Ramon Sessions or Jarred Jack is your opening day starter at PG???? And you are looking forward to see what the reigning MVP does to guards that wouldn't start for Coach Cal at Kentucky???? Gimme a break. The more I read about this trade the more I hate it. We actually got WORSE defensively if that's possible and now we have a logjam at the obsolete Center position in today's NBA. Is it to early to talk about next years draft???? I'll handle the Micheal Porter Jr department since I'm the only MIZZOU fan on KO.com. I'm looking forward to MIZZOU hoops, not this crapshow called the NY Knicks.

jimkcchief88 said:

I can't believe you guys are looking forward to a season where the big question is whether Ramon Sessions or Jarred Jack is your opening day starter at PG???? And you are looking forward to see what the reigning MVP does to guards that wouldn't start for Coach Cal at Kentucky???? Gimme a break. The more I read about this trade the more I hate it. We actually got WORSE defensively if that's possible and now we have a logjam at the obsolete Center position in today's NBA. Is it to early to talk about next years draft???? I'll handle the Micheal Porter Jr department since I'm the only MIZZOU fan on KO.com. I'm looking forward to MIZZOU hoops, not this crapshow called the NY Knicks.

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I don't think anyone expects the Knicks to win when Mills talks about being patient with the young core of KP, WHG, Frank and Baker. Mills is a shill talking up those guys other than Porzingis. I guarantee nobody in the league would be mentioning Ron Baker as a prominent piece on their team but the Knicks. And please, if you wanted your franchise to be a tough minded hard core defensive team it ain't happening with guys like Beasley, Kanter and McBust.

It's year 3 of the rebuild, get another high lottery pick and get a Doncic or Porter is what Knicks fans are hoping for not a low seed in the playoffs. The trade of Melo was not to make the Knicks better but a way to turn the page and hopefully Kanter turns into a productive player, McBust surprises or we turn the two into draft picks in trades and that high 2nd rounder we obtained turns into something for the franchise.

Playoffs? You wannna talk about playoffs??? Year three of the "rebuild" and we are no closer to the playoffs; in fact still a lottery team. Yup I know it's all Melo/Fail-Jax fault and rebuilds take time. OKC rebuilt quick and stayed relevant. Do you really trust Mills/GM de jour to excute a successful rebuild

I'm excited for this season because we don't have to talk about Melo and Phil Jackson any more. For the first time since 2011, we have a team where we don't have to pretend we're trying to "contend" just because we have an All-Star on the team. All we need is a couple of the young guys to have good seasons and we will be fun to watch.

tiger0330 said:

I don't think anyone expects the Knicks to win when Mills talks about being patient with the young core of KP, WHG, Frank and Baker. Mills is a shill talking up those guys other than Porzingis. I guarantee nobody in the league would be mentioning Ron Baker as a prominent piece on their team but the Knicks. And please, if you wanted your franchise to be a tough minded hard core defensive team it ain't happening with guys like Beasley, Kanter and McBust.

It's year 3 of the rebuild, get another high lottery pick and get a Doncic or Porter is what Knicks fans are hoping for not a low seed in the playoffs. The trade of Melo was not to make the Knicks better but a way to turn the page and hopefully Kanter turns into a productive player, McBust surprises or we turn the two into draft picks in trades and that high 2nd rounder we obtained turns into something for the franchise.

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my money is on the trade-bait scenario. there's going to be a team that feels they have a shot at relevancy nearing the middle of the season but will need a little more depth in terms of scoring potential. if that team offers a draft pick or two, take it! as it stands right now we have two 2nd round picks next summer. we can add to that with these guys, for the youth movement!

jimkcchief88 said:

Playoffs? You wannna talk about playoffs??? Year three of the "rebuild" and we are no closer to the playoffs; in fact still a lottery team. Yup I know it's all Melo/Fail-Jax fault and rebuilds take time. OKC rebuilt quick and stayed relevant. Do you really trust Mills/GM de jour to excute a successful rebuild

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The Knicks has a better chance at making the playoffs without Melo holding the team back.
Stop believing Melo never had several postseason experience teammates in everyone of his successful seasons in the NBA.
OKC made the playoff last season, and the Paul George trade this offseason made OKC another top contender team in the West.
Melo is just the 3rd option scorer in Westbrook offense!

Did the Miami Heat (Dragic/Whiteside) duo surprise u last-season being the best improve team in the league after D.Wade left to go to the Bulls?
Did Philly strike u as a future upcoming winning team last season when Embiid played 2 month straight receiving only 24 minute per night averaging 20 pts, 8 rbs, and 3 blocks?

The only negative thing bout the Knicks now is the mismanagement hype bout Porzingis being a future star .. when KP B.ball decision-making has to many flaws to be a starter in the NBA.

and1 said:

man, i'm not EVEN going to try and set up a line-up and rotation yet lmao until i see some pre-season games. but it is something i've been wondering about, even before the melo trade.
when it comes to the bigs and where some of these guys fit in. i might play around with having the Q play some PF alongside... who? you know the starting PF is going to be KP, so there's no point in even debating that. but i really don't like the idea of him being out there playing next to kanter to cover the front court. their styles of play can compliment each other on offense, but when it comes to defense? yeesh, that might be disastrous. ideally, KP starting with noah would be the way to go. so I suppose kanter comes off the bench and you can have the Q and WHG playing with him. man, i don't know.
assuming beasley is the starting SF, kuz and mcBuckets are going to have to battle it out for the 2nd unit.
baker may end up being the only guard who gets either no minutes or a small number of minutes, which would be kind of awkward given the contract he just got.
horns is probably going to be running a lot of small ball. i have no idea. pre-season, we need you!

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Its not hard to select the Knicks rotation training-camp having Noah n Lee from last season starters as the top leadership players on the roster .. the rest is easy knowing the strong n weak areas of our tier-2 player roster.
The Knicks have 8 remaining players from last season on the roster, maybe this season the young players may learn to mix well together. The new 7 players added to the roster will have to adapt to Horn new (hopefully well design) system.

As for all the new HYPE that will come out for the Knicks future star player KP .. remember this season star spot-light will be focus on Porzingis performance to evaluate what type of player he really are?

I still believe Quinn's 2-way big-man performance belong in the Knicks starter lineup as the 30 minute PF.

Porzingis talent/skill/performance has to many flaws to be in the starting lineup ..
Yes, i too believe KP will be to weak/soft and unskilled downlow to be in a lineup with Kanter.
A lineup having Kanter n KP would need Denver SF Faried or GSW SF Geeen to be successful.
Beasley is our starting SF till we find someone better, Beasley will need coaches n teammates confidence to put out a decent performance. Lance Thomas will always be the somewhat decent defensive player u bring off the bench as the 13th man on the roster for injuries.
Session is our starter till Jarrett Jack become 90% healthy ..
Rookie Frank Nitty have to get used to playing alongside of a (no-defense n no-passing) Tim Hardaway Jr. in the backcourt for the next few seasons .. so its best to bring both off the bench together as a backcourt tandem in a lineup alongside frontcourt WHG and Porzingis .. all 4 players off the bench to work at getting on the same-page.
Players like Kuz, McBuckets, and Baker should receive a lot of playing time through injuries, back to backs, and if coach Horn speeds up the tempo of each game by not having slow-poke Melo walking the ball upcourt the majority of the game.

Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis told the New York Daily News' Frank Isola he is confident he can take over as the face of the franchise after New York traded Carmelo Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday.

"I am ready for the challenge," Porzingis told Isola. "I've been preparing myself for this moment."

In his first interview since returning to the United States, the Knicks' former first-round draft pick talked about what having Anthony as a teammate meant to him, discussed his relationship with head coach Jeff Hornacek and explained why he worked out on his own this offseason in Larvia.

"Carmelo was a mentor to me," Porzingis said. "He was a big brother from Day 1. I texted him to tell him I appreciated that I was able to learn from him. Having him around was important for me. I respect him a lot. I also told him that if he doesn't bring his Rolls Royce with him, I'll take care of it."

Porzingis, who reportedly skipped his exit meeting due to Hornacek, did not explain why he skipped the meeting, however he said he hopes he, Hornacek and new team president Steve Mills can have "a new start."

"All I'm looking for is a fresh start and not to talk about that anymore," Porzingis said.

Porzingis, who led Latvia to the Eurobasket quarterfinals earlier this month, said working out independently allowed him to come into the 2017-18 season with a new mindset.

"It was important that I disconnected from everything," said Porzingis, who averaged 18.1 points and 7.2 rebounds in his second season as a Knick. "I was working on my game and resting my mind. I kept working hard this summer to put myself in this position. I'm coming in with a fresh mind. I don't want to carry anything from the previous season."

Though the Knicks got younger after trading Anthony and bolstering their roster with players such as Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Frank Ntilikina, Porzingis is optimistic the team can play well this season.

"As soon as we get together in training camp, we'll see what we're capable of doing," Porzingis said. "We have a young team, but if we can come together we can do some things."

I think we have enough offensive to compete on a nightly basis... I think this season boils down to how this young team gels together defensively.

Let's see what sort of culture Horn creates.... it's up to him now to coach and motivate and lead and design.

The key will be balancing minutes at the G spots.... Frenchie and Baker should get the bulk of the PG minutes, while Jack and Lee should be helping out in 3G lineups. Use Sessions as sort of your 6th man.

LT or Kuz will rotate as backup SF...

Ride the hot hand concept in full effect.

Start WHG or KOQ until Noah returns, and Kanter should come in as a backup, but still see 25 mpg.

The key is to find a trade partner for Lee ASAP.... get an asset for him bc he's redundant and too good to be wasted... he could help a contender.

How fitting NYK open season in OKC, huh?

Develop the young guys or play vets may be a theme this season. Playing Sessions or Jack may win you a few more games early in the season but maybe sink or swim with the young guys is more appropriate for where the Knicks are now after trading Melo. Lot of heart break with sink or swim, I'm prepared for more losing seasons but Knicks fans aren't real patient with the ticket prices they pay. I don't think the Sixers Trust the Process is going to go over real well in NY.

Pre-season schedule. Can't wait to see Frank and KP. Sessions started off on the wrong foot coming in late to camp.