thebuzzardman wrote:spree2kawhi wrote:thebuzzardman wrote:
How do the Knicks build their team to beat Boston?
I don't mean this season. This season is what it is.
But the Celtics rolling out Tatum, Brown, White, JRue and KP or some other stretch 5 is what they are going to be doing for the next 3 years.
Knicks don't currently match up that well and I don't mean based on talent level
Add Towns for Randle and we’re good.
Assuming Towns is available and all that, I've thought about that.
Kind of a wash offensive production wise, but the ability to play Towns at the 5 and draw KP/Horford/Kornet etc out of the paint and the ability to play 5 out for Brunson a pretty big deal.
Defense takes a hit, but assume iShart is still available for late game defense.
Also gives the team the ability to go really tall with Towns at PF, iShart at C, OG at SF, etc.
You can’t just look at the numbers (which, I know, you didn’t). More than anything, you get a knockdown shooter in KAT. He’s one of the best shooters in the league and has been shooting more than 50% on threes in these playoffs so far. This isn’t merely about the shooting once he has caught the ball but also about the pressure you put on defenses by replacing a very streaky, yet trigger-happy chucker with one of the best shooters in the league. A defense‘s ability to stay home or, what’s even worse at the moment, double Brunson is completely taken away and overall spacing is greatly improved for everybody and in all rotations. You could play five out when you need end of game scoring, which would really enable Brunson to go unconscious. I mean, currently Brunson has succeeded under basically the worst conditions, being the only player a defense needs to worry about. In a five out, he should literally be unguardable.
Randle gets assist numbers, but he’s still a terrible decision maker with tunnel vision more often than not (and I chose my words carefully here). KAT, however, has surprised me with his quality passing though and he doesn’t dribble into traffic.
Instead he’ll burn defenses in the post. He’s 7‘1 and he can really score down low. Randle is more mobile, but come on, a legit seven-footer…
KAT is just so much better than Randle and, even more important, a much better fit. The trade makes sense for Minnesota as they have to do something given their cap situation and a trade for Randle and an expiring Bogdanovic could literally save them 20 (!) million.
