Thoughts on some Knick players: Young & Veterans

My thoughts on the Knicks 7 Young-Core Players:

1. Frank & Dotson .. Complimentary performance need to have a full season under the right coaching-staff (Mark Jackson/Atkinson) for both players to become tough 2-Way performance guards to use as starters & finishers in their 5th season.

2. Trier .. has a raw potential to be a decent high scoring role-player that brings energy off the bench (Lou Williams). Need to practice play-maker skills in the offseason to complete his role as a combo-guard.

3. DSJ & Knox & Barrett .. Still don't know, very questionable. All three players had decent rookie season. They have showed to be utility players. Their individual talent have not showed any chemistry in lineups with teammates under head-coach Fiz & Miller. Which has most fans feeling they were not worth the draft pick they were selected.

4. MitchRob .. Will be a future All-Star .. 4 year $$$ extension !!!

My thoughts on the Knicks 7 Veteran Players:

5. Randle .. Never seen a player like Clumsy Randle-Handle .. For every one strong area of Randle's talents, Randle has 2 weak areas within his perfomance to counter. Randle's defensive-end effort are questionable, and his offense in every lineup should be the 4th option in scoring.

6. Taj Gibson .. An experience player/coach/mentor having a high IQ in NBA teams system. Keeper!

7. Harkless .. Have a strong complimentary 2-way performance to be the right chemistry role-player to bring off the bench.

8. Portis .. Still need lots of work on being a consistent 2-Way player, to show some type of consistency on at least one side of the court when weak on the other each game.

9. Payton .. Serviceable, but not an elite PG to build around as a starter or finisher. He doesn't have the mindset to be clutch.

10. Ellington .. A perimeter shooter to bring off the bench.

11. Bullock .. Has a talent & performance u keep for only one season on a team. Especially when u have a Knick roster of 3 young guards (Dotson, Trier, and RJ) that could replace Bullock having a better performance. Will Bullock $4M contract make him a keeper this offseason?

What's your thoughts on the 2019-20 Knicks players ???

My thoughts on the Knicks having the 6th pick in the 2020 draft, we should have our choice of Cole Anthony or Tyrese Haliburton.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost...in-rj-barretts-knicks-all-star-potential/amp/

His top attributes ? an instinctive knack to use his body to wiggle to the basket, a consistently high motor and a serious-minded work ethic ? have several NBA personnel people not giving up on Barrett as a potential All-Star. Not at age 19.

?RJ Barrett is not going to fail,?? one talent evaluator/former NBA head coach told The Post. ?He?s got too much size, too much ability shooting, driving. His perimeter shooting and free-throw shooting ? that will get better with time. We all know that. That?s what happens with NBA players.??

It?s also his intangibles that have the Knicks brass excited about having a bedrock piece moving forward. Knicks general manager Scott Perry, whose own future is in doubt, insisted on the Barrett pick when some colleague wanted to trade down.

?He strikes me as guy not afraid to work and has a great pedigree,?? the NBA personnel person said. ?He?s going to a good player. Is he going to be an All-Star, Hall-of-Fame type player? Probably not. But the potential is there for a couple of All-Star games, like a Khris Middleton.??

If the regular season is done, Barrett?s next move could have been playing for Team Canada in the Olympic Qualifier scheduled to be hosted by his country in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 23-28. However, the Canadian Olympic Committee said Sunday night it won?t be sending athletes to the Tokyo Games scheduled for July and August unless they?re postponed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Before last June?s draft, Josh Pastner, the Georgia Tech coach, thought Barrett had the tools to be a better pro than Zion Williamson. While that prediction looks off, Pastner said he?s not concerned.

?I think RJ Barrett had a good rookie season to this point,?? Pastner said. ?He will only get better with time. When you have the ability to naturally score like he does, that will only get better. RJ knows how to put the ball in the basket.?

Nobody is doubting Barrett will be diligent in working on his 3-point and free-throw shooting with his longtime trainer, Drew Hanlen.

?You want someone who loves the game and would play for free,?? the talent evaluator said. ?That strikes me as RJ.??

RJ Barrett

Position: SG

Height: 6-foot-7

Contract Status: Finishing first ($7.8 million) year of four-year $35.8 million rookie contract

Statistics: 14.3 ppg, 2.6 assists. 5.0 rebounds.

Theknicksblog:


John Calipari, who coached Kevin Knox during his time at Kentucky, spoke at length about the Knicks' second-year pro on Tuesday about his adjustment to the NBA, his work ethic, and more.

Calipari, who announced Tuesday that, through The Calipari Foundation, he would be donating groceries to 400 families during the coronavirus pandemic, also implored the Knicks to not give up on Knox too soon.

On the adjustment period for Knox given his age

"He was so young. Some guys are even younger than their chronological age, which is young. And guess what? He's one of those. He was the youngest player in that draft. And he was learning about himself. And I come back to: you've got to conquer yourself before you can conquer anybody else. Being in that league, I've never heard him complain one time. How about that? That he's accepting, 'I'm responsible for me. I am what my stats say I am. I'm responsible. And I've got a ways to go.'"


On his work ethic and what the Knicks need to do

"No one is going to work harder. He's one of the great kids of all time, from a great family. It's going to take time. What you don't want to do -- and teams have done this in that league -- they give up on a young, young player too soon. And now all of a sudden, the guy comes back and they look and the whole thing in New York will be, 'Well what if we had him? We gave him away. We should have held on longer. Why did we do that?'



"Young guys take longer to develop, especially when they're big. And guys with his size and his skill, the game is going to him. In other words, if you're long, if you're lanky, if you're a basketball player, if you can shoot it -- shooting has become a premium in the NBA. If you can't shoot it, it's hard to become significant guy, or the No. 1 or No. 2 guy. You've got to be No. 3, 4 or 5 if you can't shoot. That's easy because in the NBA, over time, what happens is, guys shoot the ball better. they shoot it better. and i would expect, most guys I've seen in the NBA, they improve their shooting."

What to expect going forward

"What you saw in glimpses in his first year and even glimpses in his last year, and glimpses in the summer, it's in there. Now that maturity of consistency, and most of that is not just your physical consistency, it's your mental consistency. You can't force that. A lot of times, it comes on its own terms. But when you've got what he has -- the talent and what I see in him and what I know of him, I've not lost any faith in him because I knew he was going to struggle.

"And let me leave you with one thought: the only way you're going to achieve the kind of success you're going to achieve is you're going to have some failure. And if you really want to achieve at a high level you're going to probably have to fail greatly. And you think of all the players who have gone through that league that have had to learn about themselves. And I can, with all of the great ones that learned this early and it changed who they were as a player.

"Those guys, though, came in as seniors. They were 21, 22, 23 years old. He walks in as an 18-year-old. you've got to remember that. Those guys in that stage were not coming out as freshmen. They were coming out as juniors or seniors in college. I think he's going to be fine. I think it's going to be a dogfight. I'm happy that Julius (Randle) is with him to show him to fight, fight for everything you want. I'm happy that Julius is standing beside him. I think they have some good pieces. And Kevin's got to work his way to be that guy on that team."

David Fizdale imploring Knicks to make this NBA draft move

By Marc Berman
March 25, 2020 | 7:03pm


David Fizdale said he believes the Knicks need a point guard who can shoot from deep to help center Mitchell Robinson?s growth.

The Post reported in February Knicks scouts were told earlier this season to hone in on scoring point guards for the team?s upcoming lottery pick.

Point guards Frank Ntilikina (32 percent), Dennis Smith Jr. (29.6 percent) and Elfrid Payton (20.3 percent) are each shooting erratically from 3.

?Just looking at the roster where they?re at ? I love Elfrid, Frank and Dennis Smith Jr. ? but all of them have something in common in that they?re not consistent 3-point shooters coming off the pick-and-roll,? the former Knicks coach told ESPN Radio. ?And if you have a super talent like Mitchell ? and I think Mitchell can end up being one of the best centers over the next 10 years ? you have to have a guy coming off that pick and if you have to fight over that pick-and-roll. ? If you do that, all of a sudden Mitchell Robinson looks totally different. And his production goes up big time.?

Robinson leads the NBA in field-goal percentage (73 percent). That would be an NBA record if the regular season is scrapped. Robinson has become a master at the alley-oop, but Fizdale, who now works for ESPN after being fired in December with a 4-18 record, feels he?d be more lethal with a point guard who is respected from the perimeter.

Fizdale still thinks the Knicks could use an outside-shooting power forward.

The Knicks had a gem in 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis, who was traded to the Mavericks 13 months ago. Julius Randle was signed to a three-year, $63 million pact to play power forward, but shot a dismal 27.7 percent from 3 this season.

?The other piece to that puzzle is a 4-man who can really rope that 3,?? Fizdale said. ?Like I?ve always said, the key to player development is spacing. You want to see players look better on the court, spread the floor.?

The 2020 draft is not considered strong but is plentiful with lottery-pick point guards. ESPN?s Seth Greenberg believes Iowa State?s Tyrese Haliburton and LaMelo Ball ? without his father ? would be the top choices for the Knicks.

???

We have to hope Knox becomes that stretch-4, but I don?t see that happening in next 1-2 years.

It?s crucial, for the development of RJ and MRob, to have that floor spacing. They?ll thrive if the traffic clears and the middle opens. They?ll achieve max potential with a true stretch-4 (or a legit sniper) and a floor general PG who can make it rain.

Frank will then morph into that Jack-of-all-trades type of glue guy.

We need 2 stars... a franchise PG to run the show and a lethal sniper.

Get those 2 pieces and our lottery picks will
Blossom into championship-caliber (valuable) role players.

Fizdale, Knicks would be crazy to listen to that guy but in this case I think he?s right. LaMelo might be gone when the Knicks pick, but he?s my guy and I agree about what ESPN said about RJ who btw didn?t make ESPN list of top 25 players under 25 but Lonzo did as the 25th best and his brother is supposed to be better.

Nobody one has commented about my sig of RJ and while you can't predict the potential of a guy based on one play, his step back against the Bulls was sweet and to me shows he's the best hope on the Knicks.

7. RJ Barrett | New York Knicks
MS: I wasn't as high on Barrett pre-draft as some, but this is great value here in this mock draft, and I think it would be wise to not overreact to an ugly rookie season for a 19-year-old.
Barrett's 46.7% true shooting is historically bad for a top-three pick, but he deserves a bit of a pass, given the Knicks' porous roster construction. Barrett is an aggressive, physical slasher who needs space to operate. Unfortunately, the Knicks are arguably the worst shooting team in the NBA, ranking last in made 3s and bottom-five in 3-point percentage. That lack of spacing is a big reason Barrett is shooting just 41% at the rim in the half court and ranks in the 12th percentile on pull-up jumpers.
Barrett is a better player than he has been able to show with this Knicks group, and New York's drafting a player such as LaMelo Ball could help his efficiency. I'll bet on Barrett's work ethic and competitiveness as reasons he'll evolve into a very good NBA player in time.

Your sig proves the outside touch is in there to be harnessed. A true PG and 2 shooters will turn RJ and Mrob into quality starters.

Ball, Harris, and Bullock with RJ and MRob?

tiger0330 said:

Fizdale, Knicks would be crazy to listen to that guy but in this case I think he’s right. LaMelo might be gone when the Knicks pick, but he’s my guy and I agree about what ESPN said about RJ who btw didn’t make ESPN list of top 25 players under 25 but Lonzo did as the 25th best and his brother is supposed to be better.

Nobody one has commented about my sig of RJ and while you can't predict the potential of a guy based on one play, his step back against the Bulls was sweet and to me shows he's the best hope on the Knicks.

7. RJ Barrett | New York Knicks
MS: I wasn't as high on Barrett pre-draft as some, but this is great value here in this mock draft, and I think it would be wise to not overreact to an ugly rookie season for a 19-year-old.
Barrett's 46.7% true shooting is historically bad for a top-three pick, but he deserves a bit of a pass, given the Knicks' porous roster construction. Barrett is an aggressive, physical slasher who needs space to operate. Unfortunately, the Knicks are arguably the worst shooting team in the NBA, ranking last in made 3s and bottom-five in 3-point percentage. That lack of spacing is a big reason Barrett is shooting just 41% at the rim in the half court and ranks in the 12th percentile on pull-up jumpers.
Barrett is a better player than he has been able to show with this Knicks group, and New York's drafting a player such as LaMelo Ball could help his efficiency. I'll bet on Barrett's work ethic and competitiveness as reasons he'll evolve into a very good NBA player in time.

Click to expand...

Dark Raider said:

At 19.6 second on the clock what do you see anything that concern you with that play? There should be at least two things that should be troubling. Give you a hint... MM player only meeting.​

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RJ ball hog, chucker? Don’t agree, it was the last play of the quarter/half for the boys, maybe should have run more clock but he's a rook, he gets a pass like that ESPN writeup mentions.

tiger0330 said:

RJ ball hog, chucker? Don’t agree, it was the last play of the quarter/half for the boys and he ran down the clock like they teach you.

Click to expand...

Yeah, they you are taught to run the play that is called not to IZO.

1. Why was Randle out that high with RJ? It was to set a pick for him. There no other reason for him to be that high. Miller is right there with his arm folded. Why didn't he use his pick?
2. Three player standing on the opposite side of the court, Why? No movement of the ball at all.

Again, if Randle is out set a pick and Miller is right there with his arm folded. Wouldn't that signal a play was already called? You don't see Miller waving his arms or directing someone to go here or there. Play was called!!

Look at the body language of Randle, Payton and Harkless after the shot.

Open your eyes!!

We must not be watching the same play. I see JR in the right wing then moves to the right corner, clearing space for RJ to take Sato to the hole, a slow footed Sato gave RJ to much cushion respecting his drive and RJ to me made the right call to take the jumper when Sato probably had a better chance to defend the drive with the cushion he gave him. I'd love to ask Miller did he call RJ's number on that play, I don't see a designed PnR like you do in this play.

Also, the other guys were standing around, anticipating this was going to be an ISO by RJ.

LOL,
We must be watching different plays, SMH.
You don't see Randle directly behind Sato and Randle defender behind him in the start of that play?

"If what thine eyes see offend thee then pluck it out"!!

With 3/5 guys tucked away on the left side, coach obviously has called for a P&R. Randle (half heartedly) tried to set a pick....RJ waives off that tentative effort, and instead created for himself. We don?t know what play was called.... who cares. Teenager just proved he can do the Harden step-back. Stay tuned for much more of that in the coming years.

?Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.?

AGREED!!
Making the shot was very important. Waving off the play is troubling to ME. Again 'To ME'!! Rookie don't wave off plays call by the coach. Only a Jabbar, Wilt, Magic or Jordan has that power as rookie's.

What message does it send to the rest of the team. If some of you have forgotten this is a team sport!! There already bad blood with rest of the team(per MM players only meeting). This doesn't build CHEMISTRY within the team??
There is another 'C' word that is spreading within the team. When the F.O. thought they cut it out by trading THJ and company. It still there!!

Look where Randle was, 5 ft off the 3 pt line and close to the sideline. Not exactly an ideal spot to set a pick for a play, don't see where RJ waved off JR but if he did it was the right call. Look at the space RJ had to get off the shot against Sato, he knew he didn't need a pick to get off a shot against the poor D Sato played against him.

LOL,
Picks are set where offensive with ball is not where player setting wants to be. You keep digging a deeper hole so why not just stop!!
He made the shot on a very poor defender. That doesn't say a lot for RJ. When growing up you only got credit for something like that if the other player was better than you. Drowning people grab after straws if it will keep them from drowning. Cut your losses and stop trying to justify someone else mistake.
Ask yourself the question... Why is it now that a PG that can make 3's so important? Per Fiz... was he part of the decision to sign Ellington, Bullock and draft RJ? Shooting guards are ones that open the floor not PG. What is RJ? THAT RIGHT!!

Dark Raider said:

LOL,
Picks are set where offensive with ball is not where player setting wants to be. You keep digging a deeper hole so why not just stop!!
He made the shot on a very poor defender. That doesn't say a lot for RJ. When growing up you only got credit for something like that if the other player was better than you. Drowning people grab after straws if it will keep them from drowning. Cut your losses and stop trying to justify someone else mistake.
Ask yourself the question... Why is it now that a PG that can make 3's so important? Per Fiz... was he part of the decision to sign Ellington, Bullock and draft RJ? Shooting guards are ones that open the floor not PG. What is RJ? THAT RIGHT!!

Click to expand...

This is like when we were arguing about whether Nits should have defended PJ or Graham when he switched onto PJ when Graham had made 8 3s that game and you said that was the right play. I said you stay on the hot shooter, if memory serves, Graham made the dagger after Nits left him.

Like Mafra said if JR was trying to set a pick it was half hearted either because he felt I'm not in the right spot or because RJ waved him off which he didn’t do with a hand motion and must have done it verbally if he did.

Dark Raider said:

LOL,
Picks are set where offensive with ball is not where player setting wants to be. You keep digging a deeper hole so why not just stop!!
He made the shot on a very poor defender. That doesn't say a lot for RJ. When growing up you only got credit for something like that if the other player was better than you. Drowning people grab after straws if it will keep them from drowning. Cut your losses and stop trying to justify someone else mistake.
Ask yourself the question... Why is it now that a PG that can make 3's so important? Per Fiz... was he part of the decision to sign Ellington, Bullock and draft RJ? Shooting guards are ones that open the floor not PG. What is RJ? THAT RIGHT!!

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The old eyes ain't what they used to be, RJ did wave him off so I apologize Dark, also thought Zach was the guarding him when I first saw the play. You're right Dark, the rook had his nerve, glad he made the shot. Lol

Nothing to apologize for!! He made the shot, T.G.
Often the glass is half empty for me and half full for you. It's the same glass of water just what you see.
Problems start when we stop talking or communicating.

Dark Raider said:

AGREED!!
Making the shot was very important. Waving off the play is troubling to ME. Again 'To ME'!! Rookie don't wave off plays call by the coach. Only a Jabbar, Wilt, Magic or Jordan has that power as rookie's.

What message does it send to the rest of the team. If some of you have forgotten this is a team sport!! There already bad blood with rest of the team(per MM players only meeting). This doesn't build CHEMISTRY within the team??
There is another 'C' word that is spreading within the team. When the F.O. thought they cut it out by trading THJ and company. It still there!!

Click to expand...

As a Knick fan u have to recall .. the Knicks head-coaches & president did not make the right decision throughout the the 2019-20 season having a greater consistency of losses than wins (21-45 record).
The rookie RJ waving off coach Miller's picknroll play with the clumsy Randle-Handle only proves the rookies decision-making at the time was better than (Miller/Randle) when the ball went thru the hoop.

RJ Barrett's rookie season all-around performance were not 65% as good/or equal to the 10 rookie class players competing to be in the NBA Top-5 best rookie performers for the ROY .. Ja Morant .. Zion .. Nunn .. Clarke .. Garland .. Herro .. Hachimura .. Hunter .. Porter .. Culver.
However, a lot of the rookie RJ Barrett's inconsistent performance, and weak areas had a lot to do with the Knicks poor coaching-staff, and the Knicks poor game-plan.
Hopefully, the real RJ Barrett performance will rise to the top in his 2nd or 3rd season in the league, by readjusting his rookie performance.