Was never a big fan of his, not bc he was an entitled diva who expected his unemployed no-experience brother to have some say in the org, but I didn’t like how he played. His style was soft, getting pushed to the perimeter and refusing to play the 5 bc he preferred to shoot jumpers over shorter players. When 6’3 Marcus Smart shut him down and bodied him, it was pretty embarrassing. If you guys remember when his name was being floated in trade rumors before the 2017 draft (to boston for the 3rd pick), I was all for it. I had also been wondering for years what kind of big can we get to do all the dirty work for him bc he doesn’t want to guard the other teams best big, and he doesn’t want to play inside.
I kind of wish we got more back in return, but it’s hard to trade someone coming off an ACL injury. I’m also a bit confused at the timing. From the Knicks perspective why did they have to do this now, before knowing what FAs were committing this Summer? They could’ve traded KP this summer to dump salaries after getting commits from FAs. And if they struck out this summer they could just let Lees deal wind off, suck another yr and trade KP for better assets (tho DSJ and 2 future firsts isn’t horrible). My only guess is:
1) They didn’t like him at 7’3 coming off the acl injury, 2) they’re fairly confident that at least someone will sign and found a way to clear space + get something back at the same time, 3) they think having 2 max slots is much more attractive to some pair of FAs, 4) they actually personally wanted him out of here
It’s probably a combination of these things, and I guess adding in his diva tendencies, his brothers desire to have a say w the FO, and them threatening to not sign a long term deal, they said let’s just move on.
It probably caught KP and his people off guard too, bc of the initial report that he will only sign a QO with Dallas. The only explanation is that it was an empty threat his brother/people came up with after they were caught off guard and had no say in where he was being traded. They tried using the only leverage they had for influence (kp and his bro probably wanted the pg/kawhi/ad trade rumor attention) and it made no difference bc dallas knows there’s no way a guy coming off acl surgery risks it all for UFA.
My only hope is that we don’t force anything w all the cap space we have. If we strike out, let’s suck another yr and use the cap space to get more picks/assets. Hope DSJ balls out too
floodarea
all I ask is that you don’t buy a DSJ Jersey.
