Since trading away three players in their deal for Josh Hart at this month’s trade deadline, the Knicks have been carrying just 13 players on standard contracts. The NBA-mandated minimum is technically 14, but teams are permitted to be below that minimum for up to two weeks at a time.
It has been nine days since the trade deadline, meaning New York has five more days to fill at least one of its two open roster spots. And according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, one contender to claim one of the Knicks’ roster openings is two-way player DaQuan Jeffries.
Jeffries isn’t a prototypical candidate for a promotion from a two-way contract. Not only has he not been a part of the Knicks’ rotation so far this season — he hasn’t even appeared in a single game at the NBA level since signing his two-way deal in November.
However, the 25-year-old swingman has had a strong season in the G League for New York’s affiliate, the Westchester Knicks. In 32 total games (Showcase Cup and regular season), he has averaged 19.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.1 blocks on .485/.328/.691 shooting in 33.5 minutes per contest. If there aren’t any free agents who appeal to the Knicks, it might make sense to lock up Jeffries to a team-friendly deal that includes non-guaranteed money beyond this season.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- While the Raptors‘ trade deadline may have been quieter than widely expected, Toronto’s front office would push back on the notion that the team didn’t do anything “big” last week, writes Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. As Smith explains, the Raptors believed they had three pressing needs (size, depth, and shooting) and addressed two of them (size and depth) with their acquisition of Jakob Poeltl.
- Within the same story, Smith notes that the Raptors may have a tough time avoiding the luxury tax next season if they’re intent on re-signing Poeltl, Gary Trent Jr., and Fred VanVleet. According to Smith, the club believes it could move off Otto Porter Jr.‘s guaranteed $6.3MM salary for next season if necessary, but isn’t enthusiastic about the idea of trading Chris Boucher (who is owed $11.75MM). “Sure, we could,” a team source told Smith when asked about the possibility of dealing Boucher to help cut costs. “But why? We like him a lot.”
- One of Dewayne Dedmon‘s first NBA contracts, a 10-day deal, came back in 2014 with a 19-63 Sixers team that had just launched “The Process.” Back in Philadelphia nine years later and with over 500 NBA games under his belt, Dedmon appreciates how far both he and the team have come since then. “It’s great growth for the organization, you know what I’m saying?” Dedmon said, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Doing big things. Just the whole processing years have turned out some really good things going on here. And for myself, just keep working and it’s paying off. I’m back here now and I’m ready to win.”
When are people going to realize that the whole ‘process’ has been a failure. 10 years later and where did it get them?
What have they really accomplished? Trust the process. The process of what exactly? Accumulating a lot of failed draft picks? If the process was taking a bunch of draft busts then I guess they hit their mark. Ten years later and they drafted one star and traded for another and still aren’t close to being a championship team. The Phillies process works. I’ll even take the Eagles process. But stop hyping this 76er trust the process crap. If it weren’t for the Flyers being such a disaster this 76er collection of players and managers and coaches would be the worst sports organization in the damn city. People need to start telling the truth. The dang process didn’t work. It failed. Even the Raptors and Bucks won a Chip.
If your benchmark is title or bust (or even making the championship game/series), then you are correct. It would be considered a failure. However, if you consider going from 19-63 to being a perennial contender a success, it certainly is one. The trade for a star was made possible by developing one of their own “process” picks over the years even if he had been struggling over the past few years.
Well, they were 19-63 because their process they wanted people to trust was to live with losing seasons while they stockpiled high draft choices. It’s tanking and of course it’s not that novel. Lose, lose, lose to get access to superstar talent at the top of many drafts.
Of course, it fails when the guys you choose aren’t worthy of being the best players available in a given year. Or when you make trades for guys that don’t move the needle enough toward championship contention. They had their peak in 2019 but couldn’t get the bounces they needed to move on. ‘Trust the process’ was just ‘We trust you fans will stop complaining if we win a chip’.
Not all the moves were great; many were disappointing. Most teams meet this fate, but only some of them try tanking so hard.
It was just a slogan to get complainers to shut it, so it’s ironic there are still complainers who want to point at the failures of the management.
Saturday, February 18, 2023.
Knicks are (33-27) ……….
AAAAaaaaaaahHHhaaaaaa !!!!!!