New York Notes: Finney-Smith, Load Management, Kolek, Towns, Tsai

Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith is irritated by the notion that the team will just mail it in this season, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes.

“Me, Dennis Schroder, we were talking and we just want everybody to know that we ain’t deferring to just tank or whatever,” Finney-Smith said. “They’re saying we’re going to win 17 games. I feel like this team should take that as disrespect, and use it as motivation. People don’t know how healthy Ben [Simmons] is going to be. But we’ve been seeing him for the last four weeks and he looks great. So, if bro gets back on the court I feel like it’s gonna help our team a lot, and we’re going to shake the NBA.”

We have more on the New York teams:

• Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau isn’t a fan of load management. Despite some injuries late in the regular season and playoffs last season, Thibodeau isn’t planning to give players nights off if they’re healthy enough to take the court, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “Every team has injuries. You just deal with them,” he said. “That’s part of pro sports. So some years you don’t have any injuries, some you do. So whatever your reality is, you deal with it.”
• Second-round pick Tyler Kolek made a strong impression during Summer League competition and continued to endear himself to the Knicks coaching staff prior to camp. “Obviously, we drafted him [with the 34th pick], there’s a lot of things we liked about him so we’re anxious to see him in training camp and we’ll see where it goes from there,” Thibodeau said, per Adam Zagoria of NJ.com. “I’ve always said the first step for a rookie coming in is to learn how to be a pro and he’s already exhibited great qualities. He’s in the gym all the time, hard worker, coming in multiple times a day, so he’ll give himself the best shot possible and he’s already adding value to the team.”
• With the Karl-Anthony Towns blockbuster deal official, the Knicks regulars can soon start building chemistry with the high-scoring big man. Josh Hart has already got a picture in his mind of how Towns can make them more dangerous, Bondy writes in a separate story. ““For me, I haven’t played with that many shooting bigs in my career so I’m looking forward to someone we can isolate on the post, make good decisions, put the ball in the basket,” Hart said. “I’m going to tell him whenever I get a rebound and run, just trail to the 3-point line. I’m sure he’ll get some open 3s that way. It’s going to take some time just to get the feeling down. Obviously [Jalen Brunson], Mikal [Bridges], myself, we played together for a while. OG [Anunoby] played with [Brunson] and myself for a handful of games. It’s going to take a little bit and that’s what training camp and preseason are for — so we can hit the ground running on opening day.”
• Nets owner Joe Tsai is close to acquiring a 3% stake in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, Net Income relays via a Bloomberg News report. Tsai’s investment company is making the purchase from from New York real estate developer Steve Ross. The Miami Grand Prix, Ross’s Formula 1 racing event, is also part of the deal.