Hopefully Leon is in your camp, Chip, and Dolan is far far off playing on the road.
Carlos, the sig change was just for you.
Some team will do something really stupid just before training camps open and that will get the ball rolling league wide. Let it not be us.
Everyone is waiting on Kevin Durant.
Oh, and LeBron.
No guarantee that the Knicks won't make a move, big or small.
But it is prudent to wait things out.
Grimes, Quickley, Toppin, McBride and Reddish will still be valuiable assets/developing players at the end of September, let alone next February.
Randle, Fournier and Rose will still be talanted veterans who might be of considerable interest from now through February 2023.
As for our #1 picks?
2023 [Knicks], 2023 [Dallas]
In trading our #11 to OKC on draft night [Ousmane Dieng], we got back Denver's #1, which we traded to Charlotte for Duren who we forwarded to the Pistons as part of the Walker/Burks/Noel shennanigans. As I understand it, we got the Pistons protected #1 which they seem to have gotten from the Rockets. And the Wizards #1, top 14 protected in 2023.
And a bunch of #2 picks from past transactions with the Jazz, Hornets, Heat, Mavs, Pistons, T-Waolves. I can't figure it out.
Our own 2024 #1, sundry #2s
Our own 2025 #1, and a #1 from the Pistons via the Bucks, as I understand it.
Our own 2026 #1 and sundry conditional #2s.
All of which can be shuffled and reshuffled.
Obviously we have a very young roster, so draft capital is not necessarily there to be picked, as roster space is at a premium. Still, it can be packaged for fewere, BETTER draft picks.
As things stand now?
Robinson, Hartenstein, Sims, Toppin, Reddish, Barrett, Grimes, Quickley, McBride.
That's NINE right there.
Randle, Brunson.
That's ELEVEN.
Fournier, Rose.
That's THIRTEEN.
Hunt, Keels.
That's FIFTEEN.
Jokubaitis
That's SIXTEEN.
So taken with all of that draft capital, we have the assets to mix and match and thin the herd, at the same time we are developing our pups.
So are deals on the horizon?
Likely.
Mitchell?
Only if the price is right.
Stay tuned.
PATIENCE, Butterflies, PATIENCEPatience? You never know what kind of tasty treat might appear on the horizon. The Clippers cashed in when John Wall was bought out by the Rockets, and they got him for what, $6.49 million, with a team option for the second year.
Seeing as how the Clippers have the highest payroll in the league: $195,331,757
Kawhi Leonard & Paul George: 42, 45 48 [player option]
Norman Powell: 16, 18, 19, 20
Marcus Morris: 16, 17
Luke Kennard: 13, 14, 14 [team option]
Robert Covington: 12, 11
Reggie Jackson: 11
Nicholas Batum: 10, 11
Ivica Zubac: 10, 10, 11
They are in win now mode, and teaming Wall with Jackson at PG [health wlling], a healthy Leonard and George [GOD willing], and with their veteran depth and skill set, they can make a big noise out west.
However, because the Knicks were proactive in keeping contracts short [Burks, Noel and Rose all on 2 +1's], and thus able to maneuver to swap out draft assets for more draft assets and salary cap space, they were able to pounce on the Clippers' 24 year old center Isaiah Hartenstein right at the point where he is just starting to really peak, and where the Clippers went all in on John Wall and presumably they could not afford his salary plus the luxury tax hit, which seems odd, I mean, in for a dime in for a dollar. Still, the Knicks were able to swoop in and get him with cap space left over from their Jalen Brunson pursuit.
Who knows what might come out on the market between now and training camp, between opening night and the February 2023 trade deadline.
Stay flexible. Stay prudent. Stay patient.