- Dan Feldman of NBC Sports identifies three NBA head coaches who may be on the hot seat for the 2017/18 season, singling out Alvin Gentry (Pelicans), Jeff Hornacek (Knicks), and Fred Hoiberg (Bulls) as coaches under pressure to impress.
The Knicks have begun trimming their roster in advance of the regular season, announcing today (via Twitter) that they’ve waived forward Jamel Artis. The club is now carrying 19 players.
Artis, a 6’7″ swingman out of Pitt, signed with the Knicks this summer as an undrafted free agent. He made his debut for the club on Tuesday night against the Nets, and was reasonably productive in limited action, scoring five points in seven minutes.
Assuming Artis clears waivers and doesn’t sign with another NBA team, he’ll be eligible to join the Westchester Knicks, the Knicks’ G League team, as an affiliate player. The Knicks also have an open two-way slot and could sign Artis to a two-way contract. However, if that was the plan, the club likely would’ve kept him on the roster a little longer and simply converted his deal to a two-way pact, rather than waiving him.
With Artis out of the picture, the Knicks are now carrying three players on non-guaranteed contracts — Jarrett Jack, Xavier Rathan-Mayes, and Nigel Hayes. With 15 players on fully guaranteed salaries, it will be an uphill battle for any of those camp invitees to make the regular season roster.
The Knicks and Carmelo Anthony have officially separated and the organization is moving on from their once perennial All-Star. Now is the time for the Knicks to move on from Anthony through the way the team plays the game, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes.
Head coach Jeff Hornacek now has a retooled roster and the freedom to coach the team his way. Former team president Phil Jackson harped on the triangle offense, which affected Hornacek’s own coaching style and forced the team to run a scheme many players later admitted was uncomfortable. Thus far in training camp, Hornacek said the team is focused on playing at a quicker pace.
“We want to move the ball,’’ Hornacek said. “We’ve had plays out there that I wish I could bottle up and have these guys do it every time. We’ve had some fantastic, six, seven extra passes and a guy nails the shot. We’ll continue to harp on that. We’ll continue to encourage the guys every time that happens, make or miss, and that’s that contagious thing.”
Hornacek also said the Knicks will rely on improved defense even if the team did not necessarily acquire any defensive upgrades. While Anthony was on the roster, he was criticized for holding the ball too long and playing spotty defense. While removing the 10-time all-star will not fix the Knicks, it gives the team a chance find a game plan that works.
Read up on additional news around the Atlantic Division:
- Knicks GM Scott Perry said to MSG’s Alan Hahn (via ESPN’s Ian Begley) that does not want to put too much pressure on Kristaps Porzingis as the Latvian big man settles in as the team’s franchise player. “I never want to put that much pressure on one individual,” Perry said. “He knows that he needs every one of his teammates to help this team be successful.”
- Celtics‘ guard Marcus Smart is aware of the massive deals players around the NBA are signing but he is focused on the season and not free agency. “It’s huge; it’s crazy,” Smart said to NBC Sports Boston’s A. Sherrod Blakely. “Those guys definitely deserve it. But like I said, that’s not my focus. I can’t control what those guys are getting. I can only control what I can control.”
- After signing a massive three-year deal worth up to $100MM to remain in Toronto, Kyle Lowry said to Doug Smith of the Toronto Star his new deal will not kill his desire to be great.
- K.J. McDaniels has been productive for every team he has played for, and this season he wants to put it all together with the Raptors, Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype writes.
- While Furkan Korkmaz is likely a year away from having a major NBA impact, David Murphy of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that the rookie has impressed Sixers officials in training camp.
Few contracts signed during the 2017 offseason drew as much criticism as the offer sheet Tim Hardaway Jr. inked with the Knicks, which the Hawks decided not to match. The four-year, $71MM investment in a player who has averaged 11.0 career PPG raised eyebrows around the NBA, but Hardaway said today that he couldn’t care less about league observers questioning his deal (link via Ian Begley of ESPN.com).
“People need to move on, move forward with that,” Hardaway said of his new contract with the Knicks. “That’s in the past right now. We’ve got to get ready for the season. And if they’re still harping on that, then their mind is somewhere else. I’m focused on the team, I’m here to win. And I know my teammates and the coaching staff, everybody that’s in that front office has that faith and trust in me that I’m going go out there and do everything I can to help the team win.”
- Now that the Knicks are all-in on rebuilding, there are some reasons to be excited about basketball in New York, argues Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders. Hamilton identifies rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina as a player who has the potential to be a diamond in the rough for the Knicks.
The Knicks may finally be getting the version of Joakim Noah they thought they signed last summer, writes Howie Kussoy of The New York Post. After agreeing to a four-year, $72MM contract, Noah had a disastrous first season in New York, marked by poor play, a 20-game suspension for using a banned substance and a left knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery in February.
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said Noah’s performance in training camp has been a pleasant surprise. “Coming off those injuries, literally, I’m shocked of how well he’s played just because I didn’t think he was gonna be ready this early,” Hornacek said. “I’m extremely happy with how he’s playing. He’s playing the right way. He sets great screens, he rolls hard, which opens up other things for guys if he doesn’t get it. He’s been finishing with driving layups. He’s been playing great. He wants to come back and show everybody what kind of player he is and he’s worked hard to do that over the summer.”
Enjoying a fresh start in Cleveland, Derrick Rose admits to being in “a dark place” last season with the Knicks, relays Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Rose missed part of training camp because of a civil suit involving sexual battery allegations, then had a much-publicized disappearance in January when he missed a game without permission. His season ended early as New York shut him down in April with a torn meniscus in his left knee that required surgery. “By a dark place, I mean, I was playing, like, revenge basketball, and that wasn’t my way of playing basketball,” Rose explained.
- There was a strategic effort in place to keep Kristaps Porzingis from getting caught up in the trade rumors that involved him last summer. The Knicks forward recently told ESPN’s Ian Begley that his brothers – who double as his unofficial spokespeople – made sure to keep his attention on basketball.
- After a dismal 2016/17 season, Kurt Rambis has been relieved of his unofficial duties as the Knicks‘ defensive coordinator, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Rambis remains an associate head coach with the team, however.
Carmelo Anthony‘s no-trade clause gave him the power to approve a deal to specific teams, and for most of the offseason, the only team on his wish list was the Rockets. In an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio (link via Ian Begley of ESPN), Anthony confirms that he believed earlier in the summer that a trade to Houston was all but finalized.
“A deal was done with Houston early, then for some reason – whatever happened behind the scenes – it didn’t go through, it fell through,” Anthony said. “Then we had to really start paying attention and thinking about other options.”
According to Carmelo, another deal – one that would have sent him to the Cavaliers – nearly got done on draft night, back when Phil Jackson was still running the Knicks (link via Begley). That proposed trade would have landed both Anthony and Paul George in Cleveland, Carmelo said today.
Based on various reports, it sounds like the Knicks and Rockets came closest to a deal right before New York hired Scott Perry as the team’s new general manager in July. At that point, the Knicks put trade talks on hold as Perry got acclimated to his new job and assessed the Anthony situation himself. Ultimately, the Knicks and Rockets never found common ground after that, and Anthony admits he had been preparing last week to show up for Media Day as a Knick.
“Me and my team sat down on Friday night and were like, ‘Man, we best prepare for going back to Media Day on Monday and training camp that week,'” Anthony said. “And then we got the call that said, ‘Would you open it up to OKC?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, at this point, yeah.’
“I don’t think it would have been beneficial for me to come back to Media Day after everything that was going on in the offseason,” Anthony continued. “For me to have to deal with that it would have been unfair for the organization, the Knicks, to have to deal with that. It would have been too much noise, too many questions to answer and I don’t think either party wanted to deal with that.”
While Anthony seems happy to have landed in Oklahoma City, it will be interesting to see whether the trade – and the non-trade to Houston – will have an impact on the Western Conference playoff picture next spring. The Thunder and Rockets faced each other in the postseason in 2017, and if they do so again next year, Anthony would be squaring off against the team he was all but certain he’d join.
While Carmelo Anthony was happy to ultimately land in Oklahoma City, agent Leon Rose admitted that he and his client had been expecting a trade to Houston before the Knicks hired Scott Perry as their general manager and reset those discussions. As Frank Isola of The New York Daily News outlines, Rose and Perry were ultimately able to work things out after being at odds over the Rockets opportunity.
“Even though Scott and I battled over Houston, I have to respect the fact that he inherited an extremely difficult situation and that he had to do what was best for the organization,” Rose said. “Ultimately, he did right by Carmelo and made a deal. It all worked out for everybody.”
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- After acquiring Enes Kanter from the Thunder, the Knicks have an overabundance of options at the center position, prompting Marc Berman of The New York Post to wonder if another trade may come at some point to clear out that logjam.
- With Anthony gone, Kristaps Porzingis is now “The Man” in New York, and he expects himself to naturally evolve into a team leader, writes Berman for The New York Post. “I don’t need to force it,” Porzingis said. “First thing I’ll do is be the hardest-working guy. We have a bunch of guys who work hard. I will work hard also and give an example. From that hard work, you can be a leader and give it to your teammates.”
- Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. are likely locked in as starters at power forward and shooting guard, respectively, but the other three spots in the starting lineup may be up for grabs during the preseason, as Berman details for The Post.