The Knicks unveiled one of their latest signings, journeyman Michael Beasley, during a press conference at their Westchester training facility on Tuesday. Beasley, a former second overall pick from the 2008 draft class, is confident as he joins his fifth team in six seasons, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes.
Beasley, 28, averaged 9.4 PPG and 3.4 RPG in 56 games (six starts) with the Bucks last season. It was Beasley’s first season playing more than 55 games since his 2012/13 campaign with the Suns. Beasley feels that if Carmelo Anthony stays, and the rest of the team performs up to expectations, the Knicks can be a “five, six seed” in the Eastern Conference.
“Tim Hardaway Jr., Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis and myself — those are four guys that can score 25 points per game,’’ Beasley said. “Then you add in Lance Thomas, Kyle O’Quinn, Joakim Noah — let’s not forget about that All-Star,” Beasley said. “It’s up to us to put it together just like it was up to them last year. Whatever happened last year is what happened. But I’m here now, and I’m going to do everything I can to get everyone on the same page, even if that page is beating me up every day in practice.”
As we wait to see whether Beasley and the Knicks can deliver on his optimistic forecast, here are a few more Knicks notes:
- In a separate story, Berman of the New York Post, dubbing Beasley as a possible Anthony replacement, notes that Knicks assistant coach Kurt Rambis played a role in bringing Beasley to New York. Beasley played under Rambis in Minnesota, and he confirmed that his former coach “had a lot to do” with him joining the Knicks, per ESPN’s Ian Begley (Twitter link).
- After missing most of the last two seasons, 13-year veteran Jarrett Jack signed a deal with the Knicks last week. As Al Iannazzone of Newsday writes that the veteran likes the Knicks’ 2017 first-round pick, Frank Ntilikina. “He’s a solid kid, man,” Jack said. “Really, really can play. Really long arms, really active defensively. Great size. Just looking forward to giving him all the game that I’ve gotten over these 13 years.”
- Berman of The New York Post writes that early indications are that the triangle offense may be a thing of the past, as expected after Phil Jackson‘s departure. The aforementioned Jack, who spoke to reporters about his experience at voluntary workouts, said that coach Jeff Hornacek has not mentioned the offensive scheme once.
- Whether Anthony stays or traded elsewhere, his Knicks future is a no-win situation, Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders writes.
I like to call him B-Easy. silkiest smooth player in the association
B-Easy scoring 25 a night??? Uh okay…
Lmao Beasley definitely can’t score 25 a night and Tim Hardaway has a 99.9% chance of not scoring 25 a night. Melo might not even do that if he’s not wearing a hoodie and Porzingis needs way more touches to get close. But he is right that any given night 1 of 4 of them could score 25, maybe even 2 of 4!
Porzingis is not ready to be a legit first option just yet, he’s not ready for double teams and carrying a team. The Knicks are best off keeping Melo for the season and letting him leave next summer since he has an opt-out. I do believe the Knicks can get a 7th-8th seed possibly even higher depending on how much they got on defense from Melo. The smart thing would have been to get rid of Melo and tank for Porter Jr.
Thank you for being reasonable again Dionis.
I think it’s about time to give KP that responsibility. 3rd season, just right. The sooner you do it, the better.
Doncic is better than Porter Jr
Should be fun seeing Melo lead a team to the plyoffs that is supposed to be tanking.
Rockets GM Morey might be outsmarting himself by not offering good pieces in trade… This is the year to get Melo & Chris Paul together because I doubt Paul is going to look forward to more than this year basically at 2guard.
So you’re suggesting the Rockets offer good assets (presumably first round picks since their only other good, non CP3/Harden asset is Capela) for Melo? You must be a Knick fan because its still absurd to think that the Knicks will get a good haul for Melo. And I don’t see any reason why CP3 would be playing more minutes at the 2 guard spot. The league is becoming a positionless league so who plays the PG and SG spots hardly matters anymore. CP3 will fill the Beverley role only in the sense that he will guard the better opposing guard. But if there is a significant height advantage at the 2 spot (Minnesota’s perimeter trio of Teague, Butler, Wiggins would be a good example) I imagine Harden would end up guarding the bigger player so teams can’t post up on CP3 every time they come down.
Gordon, Ariza and Quartermain could cover Melo’s salary without picks.
However since Morey only has an unknown FA besides Gordon, Harden and Paul at guard, he really can’t do this. Well his choice, a hardcore one. When he got Melo to put only Houston on his list, all he had to do was string him along and NY is stuck with taking Anderson. UNLESS the Knicks bite the bullet, keep Melo– and possibly wind up in the playoffs!
I predict they do, and Paul departs to a team that hands him the keys and can offer 3x$20MM or so to a playoff-driving Melo.
I heard audio from Beasley last night… and 1st thought was he needs to be drug tested.
I’m interested in seeing what Buckets can do with expanded minutes, now that his game, and maturity level, has evolved to where it has been the last 3 years since he most recently returned from China. As a Heat fan, I’ve seen as much as you can of him, and it’s obvious thatched a different person and player. That being said…I wish he would have reigned in the comments a bit, as much as the confidence is important