2021 Free Agent Stuff

[Kiyaman]

Yup. Dude pops up once in a blue moon and when he does it’s stupid, troll type posts. I come here for INTELLIGENT Knicks-talk. It’s ok to disagree, but have a lucid point not mindless dribble. If I wanted basketball comic relief I can watch re-runs of Shaq vs Chuck on YouTube. “It’s supposed to be 1-2-3, not 1-2 and back to 1 dumbass����”

What did Kemba Walker & Evan Fournier do in Boston's 5 game playoff series to make the next team want them? They both were BUMS that showed they were not ready for the playoff level of the NBA !!!

[mafra]

Kemba Walker’s homecoming has Knicks fairy tale potential
By Mike Vaccaro

August 4, 2021 | 6:02pm


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If this works out, it will be one of the sweetest tales ever to be hatched within the boundaries of the City Game. If this works out, we will look back on this as one of the splendid days in Knicks history, Kemba Walker coming home, coming back to New York, back to the Garden.

We are forever a city of point guards, after all, even those of us whose basketball journeys ended with the JV, or at the Y. We are the city of Bob Cousy and Dicky McGuire, of Tiny Archibald and Lenny Wilkens and Larry Brown, of Kenny Anderson and Kenny Smith, of Pearl Washington and Mark Jackson and Boo Harvey, Rod Strickland and Steph Marbury, Frankie Alagia and David Cain.

Some of them have done wonderful work at the Garden. McGuire’s number 15 hangs in its rafters. Jackson won rookie of the year, making the wonderful New York hoops trip from Bishop Loughlin to St. John’s to the Knicks. Dean (the Dream) Meminger went from Rice to Marquette, where he won the 1970 NIT at the Garden, then landed with the ’73 champion Knicks.


Walker takes that path now. He was a star at Rice, too, and as a junior memorably met up with a senior from Chicago Simeon High in January 2007, fellow named Derrick Rose, in a high school game at the Garden that people who were there still talk about. Across five unforgettable nights four years later, he led UConn to five straight wins and the Big East Tournament title, then won six more in the NCAA, one of the great college basketball stories ever told. He became an All-Star in Charlotte, and in Boston.


Kemba Walker
Kemba Walker
Getty Images
And he comes home now. He is 31, with close to 25,000 NBA minutes on his treads, coming off an injury-plagued season with the Celtics. But he comes at a reasonable salary number after getting a buyout from Oklahoma City, and he will team with Rose to provide a 1-2 punch at point guard — a yawning chasm for the Knicks in recent years — that will be as long on intrigue and class as it might be long in the tooth.


There are pitfalls and there are pratfalls aplenty standing in the way of this, of course. Can the Knicks get, say, 140 games total out of Walker/Rose, of the max 164? Will Tom Thibodeau be tempted, as we all know he can be, to play them together during the regular season when the moment begs for it, even if their wheels require something else?

We can worry about that later.

For now, we can enjoy the moment, a grand moment of homecoming, a great moment when two of the game’s dynamic point guards will team up for a city of would-be point guards, all of us capable of driving-and-kicking in our dreams, all of us yearning to push the ball up the floor, Bernard on our left and DeBusschere on our right.


Back on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007, the Garden was unwittingly treated to a preview of this pairing in the old “Super Six” tripleheader. Rose’s Simeon was the 14th-ranked high school team in the country and Memphis-bound Rose lived up to his billing as a surefire 2008 first-rounder by pouring in 22 points, eight of them in an electrifying fourth quarter.


Kemba Walker celebrates after hitting a game-winning buzzer beater in the 2011 Big East Championship at MSG.
Kemba Walker celebrates after hitting a game-winning buzzer beater in the 2011 Big East Championship at MSG.
Anthony J. Causi
But Walker, a junior, held his own for Rice, the longtime Manhattan power that closed in 2011. He scored 16 points, guarded Rose the whole day, and raised an awful lot of eyebrows.

“I was very excited,” Walker said after Rice’s 53-51 upset was complete that day. “I heard he is the top player in the country and I wanted my chance to prove myself against him. I think I did.”


SEE ALSO

Kemba Walker signing with Knicks after Thunder buyout
Kemba Walker signing with Knicks after Thunder buyout
“We didn’t win,” Rose said, “and I blame me for that.”

Fourteen years later the players have one NCAA title and one-runner-up between them, they have seven All-Star appearances, two All-NBA nods and one MVP trophy between them. And come the fall, they will have the ball in their hands an awful lot as the Knicks try to keep their heads above water in an Eastern Conference that has gotten a lot tougher, and deeper, since the season ended.

There are a lot of things that can go wrong. There is no question about that.

But if most can go right? If Walker and Rose can combine for 55 minutes a game, combine for 150 games, combine to give the Knicks the kind of dynamic two-headed playmaker they haven’t had — dare we say — since Clyde Frazier and Pearl Monroe? Yeah. A city of would-be and wannabe point guards is going to be awfully happy.

And the Knicks are going to be awfully fun

[mafra]

After Walker signs, New York will have 13 players on traditional NBA contracts. Once first-round pick Quentin Grimes signs, that number will jump to 14.

So they have one traditional NBA roster spot remaining and two two-way spots.

At the moment, the club has room for a couple two-way players and another player on a standard NBA deal. But they have to agree to terms with McBride and Jericho Sims. Assuming they reach deals with both players, there will be room for another player on either a standard NBA deal or two-way contract.

The Knicks and Walker are expected to agree on a two-year deal worth roughly $8 million annually, a source confirmed.

This means Walker is expected to take up the rest of the Knicks’ cap space.

They will have to use exceptions to sign the 15th player. The Knicks have the $4.9 million room exception and can use veteran’s minimum exceptions.

New York can go in a number of different directions with the final roster spot, but the club filled its biggest need on Wednesday by securing Walker.

[htr10]

Julius Randle gets a 4 year 117 million dollar extension. His deal is now worth 5 years 140 million. Last year is a player option.

2 years ago, Porzingis signed an extension to pay him 5 years 158 million.

So, by trading KP and ending up with Randle, we saved 18 million over 5 years and got a 2nd team All-NBA player instead of a guy who hasn’t made an All-Star team since he left us and has bad knees.

Randle could have waited for his deal to expire at the end of the season to sign a 200 million dollar deal, so by signing now, Randle and the front office really preserved a lot of future cap space. Randle seems committed to building a winner here.

[mafra]

The most important question the front office needed to answer was if they believed in this Randle-RJ breakout year. Based on their moves, I think we have our answer.

We get a 26 year All Star for 29 mil a year while CHI signed 32 year old DeRozan for 28 mil per year.

[mafra]

Quoth Adrian Wojnarowski:

“Randle could’ve waited for his contract to expire next season and signed a new $200 million deal, but extending now off his current $19.8 million salary for 2021-22 gives the Knicks financial flexibility to shape the roster and allows him to commit through his prime to a franchise and city he has come to adore — and one that has come to adore him

[mafra]

Evan Fournier finished Thursday's 90-89 win over Slovenia with a line of 23 points (8-of-15 FGs, 3-of-3 FTs), five rebounds, three assists and four 3-pointers in 28 minutes.

France clinched a spot in the gold medal game in dramatic fashion, thanks to Nicolas Batum's block of a Klemen Prepelic layup attempt just before time expired. Fournier had a very good game shooting the ball, but foul trouble led to his night ending prematurely. One of the newest members of the Knicks will now look to clinch his nation's first-ever Olympic gold medal in men's basketball Friday night, as France takes on the United States. France won the group stage meeting between the two teams, beating the Americans by seven.

[Dark Raider]

Julius Randle isn't a #1 option in any offense, period. It not to say I don't like Randle which I do but he isn't the guy to take the final shot. If the F.O. believe that Randle/RJ last year performance was breakout then they are in for a rude awakening. No matter what happen during the regular season. The playoff showed all of the problems that an offense built around those two isn't good. Randle isn't a #1 option so when was this problem solve? RJ isn't a SG and never has been so when was this problem solve? If you got a problem with RJ observation ask yourself this why is it very year the Knicks keep looking for shooter. The reason is because they aren't getting it from their SG.

Paying Randle that much money and now he is(not become) an anvil around your neck. Who then wants that contract of a #2 option player at best? If he can have the same year as last year then maybe but just wait until the season is over. But you keep coming back to the same issue... He is not a #1 option!! Bless his soul because he try's I can say that about him. It just not in his DNA.

BTW, the only player on the Knicks that should take a final shot is D. Rose, period MVP.

[htr10]

To be fair, Randle didn’t really get a #1 option contract. He didn’t make the front office wait to sign him to a 200 million dollar deal next off-season. We could have future cap space to add a #1 option with a bigger deal than what Randle took.

[mafra]

Randle received about what am aged CP3 got, an ancient DeRozan and an unproven Norman Powell.

With Kemba and Evan, Randle is now a second option and won’t have to be dominant ball handling point forward.

Didn’t Karl Malone have Stockton?

Kemba and Evan are gonna make people eat some words. Huge upgrades over Payton and Dotson. Like going from a scurrilous scarred seahag to a supermodel.

[Dark Raider]

Let me be clear... Sound familiar !! Randle deserve a raise but just not now.

First of all Randle isn't Karl Malone is no shape, form or fashion. Matter a damn what the contract looks like in regards to other player. We shouldn't have paid him that much money. This could have waited until the end of the year after he had the same year as this past one(wish I doubt).

Randle doesn't deserve #1 option money so we are all in agreement on that.

As for Dotson he was our best all-around player. Who last year or this coming year will be close to being that player? Problem is you didn't play him enough because he would have shown the problem you have at SG.

Let hope that Walker and Fournier have good years because that would be good for the team. Where are there shoots coming from since both were high option on there last teams? Remember the Knicks already have Randle & RJ as option #1 & #2. Who's going to take a back seat in a offense that is dysfunctional? BIGGEST QUESTION OF ALL-- Can Randle have the same year or better than last year? You had to build an offense around him and play him 40 minutes a game to get his numbers. If you built any offense around a player his numbers should improve and maybe become the most improve player in the league. This is the problem facing the Knicks this coming year.

[mafra]

If we waited til end of year, and Randle repeated MVP caliber production… the extension is worth 200 mil (not 115). NYK save 85 mil by acting now, and the future payroll cap will appreciate that we got him at a 40% discount.

Basically, to put in perspective,Randle got less than what John the Baptist Collins just got.

[Kiyaman]

If we waited til end of year, and Randle repeated MVP caliber production… the extension is worth 200 mil (not 115). NYK save 85 mil by acting now, and the future payroll cap will appreciate that we got him at a 40% discount.

Basically, to put in perspective,Randle got less than what John the Baptist Collins just got.

Ha ha ha ....
Our Cinderella-Randle finally has his best season in the NBA, during Covid-19 empty seated stadiums where no fans were in the seats of each regular season game.
Randle became a Fan-favorite when fans were not allowed in the stadium LMAO!
What will happen when the fans are allowed back in the stadium, will the fans loud screaming, yelling, and insults, especially in the 4th quarter of the game, make our Cinderella Randle loose a slipper and return to his turnover after turnover performance? I say yes!

In the NBA 2021 postseason games players Randle, Barrett, Walker, Fournier all performed like BUMS in each of their playoff games.
And coach Thibs poor postseason coaching (40-64) still has not improve.

[Dark Raider]

I get it what is being said to save money. But this isn't a money issue it about whether a player is truly worth that some of money. Let Randle have another year like last year and pay him #2 option money. Again, I'm not saying don't pay him but 'Let's be Clear'. Randle found that team that was looking for a star and he wants to be that #1 option but he isn't. Do you really think Randle will leave the Knicks? He would hold onto a concrete column and pull down MSG to the ground. He found suckers and him and RJ are going to take Knicks for everything they can. Don't get me wrong, Randle should be on the team under the right circumstances that being the #2 option not the #1 like he is now.

[htr10]

Lauri Markkanen, Kelly Oubre, and Dennis Schroeder seem to top the list of players who overestimated their value in free agency.

Markkanen now reportedly requesting trade out of Chicago.