New York Knicks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Knicks Notes: Melo, Porzingis, Hernangomez, PGs

October 20th, 2017 at 12:21pm CST by Luke Adams

While some fans in New York may have been happy to see the Carmelo Anthony era come to an end last month, Anthony’s Knicks teammates weren’t among those that wanted to see him go. As Ian Begley of ESPN details, Anthony was the Knicks’ recipient of the Teammate of The Year award in 2017, an award voted on by his peers.

Begley passes along quotes from several of Anthony’s former teammates in New York, all of whom had nothing but praise for the veteran forward. Mindaugas Kuzminskas, for instance, wasn’t sure Anthony would know who he was when he arrived in New York last season, and was surprised when his All-Star teammate approached him with questions about his Olympic experience.

“Probably the biggest thing that I learned from ‘Melo is that even being a huge star, huge player, you can be still a great person, great teammate,” Kuzminskas said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie or a veteran. He’s going to treat you the same way.”

While Anthony received plenty of questions about his time in New York and his recent departure from the Knicks in the days leading up to Thursday’s Thunder/Knicks showdown, the newest member of the Thunder is eager to move on, telling reporters after OKC’s opening-night win that it’s time to close that chapter. “No more Knicks talk,” Anthony said, according to ESPN’s Royce Young.

Stop reading now, ‘Melo, because we’ve got more Knicks talk below…

While there weren’t a ton of positives for the Knicks in Thursday’s loss to the Thunder, the play of Kristaps Porzingis was a bright spot. Porzingis is showing that he can be a worthy successor to Anthony, according to Ian Begley, who has the details in a story for ESPN.com.
Another one of the Knicks’ young building blocks, Willy Hernangomez, barely saw any action in the Knicks’ opener. It was a surprising decision, but Jeff Hornacek defended the call by pointing out that Enes Kanter and Kyle O’Quinn earned playing time with their preseason performances, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. “I think the coach wants to see my effort on defense,” Hernangomez said. “That’s why I have to keep working hard everyday.”
The Knicks’ point guard situation was viewed as perhaps the worst in the league entering the season, and the club’s play on Thursday didn’t do much to change that perception. One NBA scout who spoke to Marc Berman of The New York Post suggests that the Knicks might as well throw rookie Frank Ntilikina “to the wolves” and let him play major minutes.

Knicks Sign Isaiah Hicks To Two-Way Contract

October 20th, 2017 at 11:46am CST by Austin Kent

OCTOBER 20: The Knicks have officially signed Hicks to a two-way deal, the team announced today in a press release.

OCTOBER 19: The Knicks are planning to sign forward Isaiah Hicks to a two-way contract, Shams Charania of The Vertical tweets. The North Carolina alum went through training camp with the Hornets earlier this month.

After going undrafted in the 2017 NBA Draft, the Tar Heel will look to make an impression with the franchise bouncing between the New York squad and the Knicks’ G League affiliate in Westchester.

Once the move becomes official, both of the Knicks’ two-way slots will be filled, with center Luke Kornet occupying the other one.

Knicks Notes: Measuring Success, Height, Hardaway Jr.

October 19th, 2017 at 5:58pm CST by Austin Kent

The Knicks may not be a likely bet to contend for a playoff spot without Carmelo Anthony but that doesn’t mean that the season can’t still end up being worthwhile. Marc Berman of The New York Post spoke about the state of the franchise with analyst and former New York guard Greg Anthony.

This year, the broadcaster says, the team will need to gain confidence, establish leadership and grow team chemistry, whether they find themselves in the hunt for a postseason bid or not.

Regardless of the team’s win total, however, the organization’s new front office tandem of Steve Mills and Scott Perry will be under the microscope. After the disappointing reign of Phil Jackson, Berman writes that it will be hard for them to be any worse.

There’s more from the Knicks:

There’s a good chance that Kristaps Porzingis will one day be the face of the Knicks franchise but head coach Jeff Hornacek thinks that his 22-year-old star will need to grow into that role in time, Ian Begley of ESPN writes.
The Knicks are an unusually tall team at a time when some of the NBA’s most successful franchises are going small, Mike Vorkunov of the New York Times writes.
When summer signee Tim Hardaway Jr. was shipped off from the Knicks to the Hawks and then demoted to the team’s G League affiliate, it served as a wake up call, the guard told Al Iannazzone of Newsday. “[Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer] putting me down there just made me realize you got to work hard, man. You can’t come here expecting to play. I thought I was going to come in and play. I realized I had veterans in front of me that I had to outwork and compete each and every day. Once I got better he trusted me in that process and it got me to where I am right now.”

Teams With Open Roster Spots

October 19th, 2017 at 1:54pm CST by Luke Adams

For the first time, NBA teams are permitted to carry up to 17 players this season. In addition to carrying up to 15 players to the NBA roster, teams can add two more players on two-way contracts. The rule changes related to roster sizes have allowed teams to maintain a little extra flexibility, and many clubs are taking advantage of that added flexibility to open the season, carrying the full 17 players.

Several teams still have open roster spots though, affording those clubs a different kind of flexibility. A team carrying only 14 NBA players, for instance, has the opportunity to sign a free agent or add a player in a trade at any time without waiving anyone, all the while avoiding paying for a 15th man who almost certainly won’t see much playing time.

With the help of our roster count page and our two-way contract tracker, here’s a breakdown of the teams that have at least one open NBA or two-way spot on their rosters:

Teams carrying just 14 NBA contracts:

Boston Celtics
Charlotte Hornets
Detroit Pistons
Houston Rockets
Indiana Pacers
Los Angeles Clippers
Minnesota Timberwolves
Oklahoma City Thunder
Portland Trail Blazers

It makes sense that a few of these teams would avoid carrying a 15th man to open the season. The Rockets, Thunder, and Trail Blazers are all taxpayers, and teams like the Clippers and Hornets are close enough to the tax threshold that avoiding a 15th salary is logical. Among these clubs, the Celtics seem like perhaps the best bet to fill their final roster opening soon, now that the team has likely lost Gordon Hayward for the season.

Teams carrying just one two-way contract:

Atlanta Hawks
Houston Rockets
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
New York Knicks
Portland Trail Blazers

The Trail Blazers don’t currently have a G League affiliate of their own, but the other five teams on this list do, so that’s probably not the reason Portland has waited to fill its second two-way slot. In all likelihood, these six teams will add a second two-way player in time for G League training camps, which open next week. The season tips off on November 3.

Carmelo Anthony Talks Phil Jackson, Trade, OKC

October 18th, 2017 at 5:00pm CST by Luke Adams

In advance of a Thursday night matchup against his old team, Carmelo Anthony spoke this week about the trade that sent him from the Knicks to the Thunder, with both Marc Stein of The New York Times and Fred Kerber of The New York Post passing along the forward’s thoughts. While Anthony says he holds “no grudge” against the Knicks, he acknowledges he wasn’t thrilled with the way Phil Jackson handled his situation earlier this year, calling Jackson’s behavior “hurtful.”

“I was always … going to put my trust in Phil,” Anthony said, per Kerber. “That diminished after a while. I’m out here doing everything I can, and I’m still getting stabbed in the back. I’m not trusting in that anymore. I’m trusting in these guys (teammates) that are out here. Whoever’s out here, this is who I’m dealing with.”

As Anthony explains to Stein, he had a nagging sense that Jackson was trying to force him out of New York, which dampened his devotion to the Knicks. Jackson – who was willing “to trade me for a bag of chips,” according to Carmelo – was eventually ousted as the club’s president of basketball operations. At that point, the Knicks went, in Anthony’s words, “from asking for peanuts to asking for steak” in trade talks.

With Jackson gone and Steve Mills and Scott Perry taking a harder line in trade negotiations, the odds of a deal with the Rockets declined. Still, Anthony felt that bridges had been burned in New York, and remained committed to finding a trade that worked.

“I think at that point it was too far gone,” Anthony said. “I already had in my mind that I wanted to win, that I wanted to move on. We didn’t think it would take as long as it did, but my mind was already made up.”

As for his eventual destination, Anthony admits to Stein that his 10-year-old son Kiran was among those who sold him on Oklahoma City as his new NBA home.

“My son has a basketball mind,” Anthony said. “So I will always throw little topics at him. He was like, ‘Dad, where you getting traded to?’ I told him, ‘I don’t know, where do you think I should go?’ He said: ‘You really want me to give you my opinion? I think you should go to OKC.'”

Rockets, Knicks, Pelicans Eyeing Wade Baldwin

October 17th, 2017 at 9:26am CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets, Knicks, and Pelicans are among the teams with some level of interest in point guard Wade Baldwin, according to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). The Timberwolves, Wolfson’s local team, haven’t shown interest in Baldwin at this point.

Baldwin, a Vanderbilt alum, was the 17th overall pick in the 2016 draft and spent his rookie season with the Grizzlies. After 33 up-and-down games with the club, Baldwin was a somewhat surprising victim of the roster crunch in Memphis on Monday, with the team waiving him and fellow 2016 draftee Rade Zagorac to get down to the 15-man limit.

Although Baldwin struggled to adjust to the NBA in his rookie season, he’s still just 21 years old, so there will likely be clubs that view him as a project with some upside.

Currently, Baldwin remains on waivers. If a team wanted to claim him, that club would need to be willing to take on his $1.874MM guaranteed salary for 2017/18, and would need to have enough cap space – or a big enough trade exception – to accommodate that money. It’s more likely that Baldwin will clear waivers and perhaps sign a minimum salary deal with a new team.

If Baldwin doesn’t receive an NBA offer, he could end up playing overseas or in the G League, either on a two-way contract or a straight G League deal. Nine NBA teams have at least one open two-way slot at the moment.

Doug McDermott Very Unlikely To Sign Extension Today

October 16th, 2017 at 1:26pm CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks are “highly unlikey” to sign newly-acquired sharpshooter Doug McDermott to a new deal today, tweets Ian Begley of ESPN. As Begley observes, there’s no rush for the Knicks, who will have all season to see how McDermott fits in New York.

New York Notes: Crabbe, Starting Lineups, NBA Draft

October 15th, 2017 at 3:59pm CST by marksuleymanov

Newest Nets acquisition Allen Crabbe was limited during the preseason due to an ankle injury. Crabbe missed the first two preseason contests and was relegated to coming off the bench in the final two games. Head coach Kenny Atkinson wants to get Crabbe acclimated to the lineup but is also pleased with how Brooklyn’s highest-paid player has progressed, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes.

“We still have to integrate Allen Crabbe a little bit. He’s obviously a little behind because he’s been out,” Atkinson said. “We got a good practice in [Friday] and he got a lot of reps. For him it’s just a matter of time. Overall [I’m] pleased.”

Crabbe, 26, had a productive season off the Trail Blazers’ bench last season, averaging 10.7 PPG across 79 games in Portland. Crabbe’s journey to Brooklyn was delayed by one year as the Nets originally issued him an offer sheet that the Trail Blazers matched. Now that he’s in a revamped culture with a revamped roster in Brooklyn, Crabbe’s health will be key to the team’s development.

Below you can check out other news surrounding New York’s two basketball teams:

Without a clear defensive big man on the Nets roster, playing with a smaller roster on the floor could spell disaster for the young Brooklyn squad, Lewis writes in a separate story.
A knee injury to 19-year-old Frenchman Frank Ntilikina is making the Knicks‘ opening night lineup clearer, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Veteran Ramon Sessions will be the likely starting point guard with Tim Hardaway Jr. (shooting guard) and Courtney Lee (small forward) rounding out the backcourt. Kristaps Porzingis has dealt with his own injury-riddled preseason but should start the season opener in Oklahoma City with Enes Kanter — acquired from the Thunder for Carmelo Anthony — as the center.
The Knicks are not expected to contend in 2017/18 so the team should consider its possible options in the 2018 NBA Draft when deciding on plans for this season, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News opines. Michael Porter Jr., Marvin Bagley III and Luka Dončić will be three highly sought-after targets in next year’s draft. A lowly Knicks team could set its sights on tanking this season in order to secure a draft pick high enough to select one of those youngsters next season.

Knicks Notes: Rotation, Hernangomez, Lee, Burke

October 15th, 2017 at 10:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Coach Jeff Hornacek is planning to use nine or 10 players in his rotation, which means some Knicks won’t get the playing time they’re expecting, posts Ian Begley on ESPN Now. Three starting slots seem to be set heading into Thursday’s opener, with Kristaps Porzingis at power forward, free agent addition Tim Hardaway Jr. at shooting guard and veteran Ramon Sessions at point guard because first-round pick Frank Ntilikina missed much of the preseason with an injuries.

Hornacek hasn’t decided whether to make Courtney Lee his starting small forward or go with a bigger option such as Lance Thomas, Doug McDermott, Michael Beasley or Mindaugas Kuzminskas. At center, Enes Kanter, Willy Hernangomez or Kyle O’Quinn are all in contention for the opening-night start, and Joakim Noah may join the rotation once he returns from his suspension. Begley suggests that Hornacek will have some disappointed players to deal with regardless of what he decides.

There’s more out of New York:

Hernangomez got the least playing time of the three centers during preseason, but that doesn’t mean the minutes will be divided that way going forward, Begley notes in another ESPN Now post. Hornacek wanted to see how Kanter, who was acquired from the Thunder three weeks ago, would fit with his new teammates. “We know what Willy can do with a lot of our players, especially [Kristaps Porzingis and others] that were here last year,” Hornacek said. “We’re trying to see Enes with that group.”
Marc Berman of the New York Post expects Lee to get the start on Thursday as Hornacek tries to add speed to his defensive unit. That means Lee will be matched up with former teammate Carmelo Anthony, who was traded to Oklahoma City last month. Hornacek plans to use different starters at the three spot depending on matchups, but Lee is confident he can guard anybody. “We got to do what’s best for the team,” he said. “If somebody’s starting at small forward that’s 6 [-foot-] 10 and starts posting me up, it only makes sense to get a bigger body on him. But if you put me on anybody, I’m going to fight him. I’m going to try to get the stop. That’s my job. Maybe I am blocking that 6-10 guy’s jump hook and I stay in.”
After waiving Trey Burke on Saturday, Knicks are hoping he will play for their G League affiliate in Westchester, Berman adds in the same story. Burke didn’t sign with New York until Wednesday, and Hornacek believes he needs more evaluation before giving him a roster spot. “Trey was probably in a tough position there coming in at the last minute,’’ Hornacek said. “The other guys are able to show some stuff. We like Trey, what we can do.”

Knicks Waive Trey Burke, Two Others

October 14th, 2017 at 9:02am CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks have announced three roster cuts, confirming today in a press release that they’ve waived point guard Trey Burke, guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes, and forward Nigel Hayes.

Burke is the most noteworthy player of the group. The former ninth overall pick signed a contract with the Knicks earlier this week, and given the team’s uncertain point guard picture, it looked like there may be an opportunity for him to sneak onto the regular season roster. That won’t happen after all.

Rathan-Mayes and Hayes look like good bets to land with the Westchester Knicks as G League affiliate players. Burke could also end up in the G League, though he’ll likely exhaust his NBA opportunities first, and overseas league may be an option for the former Michigan standout too.

As for the Knicks, they’re still carrying 16 players on their NBA roster, but don’t necessarily need to make any additional cuts before the season begins. Joakim Noah is in the midst of serving a 20-game ban and will open the year on the suspended list, giving the Knicks the chance to add a 16th player until Noah returns. Jarrett Jack – the only non-guaranteed player left on the roster – appears to be the beneficiary.