Rob Perez(@WorldWideWob) on #NBAFinals, Knicks Reset, Jazz Rebuilding + more

someone like that. But Dolan reappearing is certainly brings up memories of that time. But the Knicks have moved on past that, right, I mean, you brought it up yourself. This team is fun, They are relevant. They are moving in a direction that I haven't seen since I was a child. And a lot of that building up was

due to Tom Thibodeau. I mean, this team went from complete irrelevancy where the entire roster was built on power forwards who were on one plus one contracts meaning under contract plus a team option that second year, Taj Gibson and Marcus Morris and all these names, right, and they've evolved into this over four or five year span. And you got to give Tom Thibodeau most of the credit. Theres he's been at the helm coaching these guys through thick and thin, and the New York Knicks have been

a roller coaster of emotion. They go on losing streaks, they respond with a seven game winning streak. Now there's been this resemblance of consistency and taking that step forward. So for all of those reasons, I am certainly appreciative

of what Tom Thibodeau accomplished in New York. You know, there's a Comma butt coming a comma however, dot dot dot However, I do certainly believe that what's holding back the Knicks from taking what's now the next step to the NBA Finals is the ability to deploy and develop a roster that is more than seven to eight deep.

And if we have learned anything from Tom Thibodeau these years, it's that he is always going to go down in Tom Thibodeau's way, right, He's going to play his seven to eight trusted guys, and only out of necessity, not necessarily preference, will he go to the Delon rights, the Landry Shammitz, of whom played pretty decently in that conference finals. But you're going to need a lot more than that

to beat these pacers. So maybe it was the belief from Nick's ownership and the executive level that we're very thankful for you getting us here, but for us to become this publicly traded company. We got to go with a different CEO, right, That's the only way the board is going to improve this IPO price is if there's someone else at the Helm who can take what's there and push them even further. And I think the second

part of your question was who's next? Got me? I mean they're trying to seek permission to speak with Jason Kidd from Dallas, and you can put the pieces together on that one. What that would mean potentially for the roster as well.

Worldwide West? You know, is he next up being the New Yorker And he also has proven success championship success in managing a veteran laden team, But he's not the head coach in the Knicks yet. You could figure maybe Jay Wright would have been the guy because of his connection to those national champion Villanova Wildcats and how much those guys liked playing for him, But supposedly he has

denied that as well. And the Jason Kidd thing has some serious equity with me because I would certainly understand why he wants to leave Dallas with all the turnover and overhaul that's been going on with you know, their ranks at the players and the coaching staff. If Jason Kidd wants to come back to New York, we know that he's close, not the but one of his closest allies in the NBA right now is Giannis Antennacumbo from their time in Milwaukee. So is there some back channeling

that's been going on that the Knicks have learned? If Giannis excuse me, if Jason Kidd gets the New York Knicks job that if Giannis ends up getting traded that he will make it a point send me to New York. Because he can't. He doesn't have a no trade clause. He can't. He can't decline trades the way that Bradley

Beal can. But star players have a ton of leverage, and if they say I'm only going to play in New York, he can potentially call out the bluff of some of these teams that are going to be offering the Milwaukee Bucks a package for Janis's services. And we don't know what the bucks official choice is going to be in regards to moving him or keeping him on the roster, because they've got their own issues there with

the second Apron and Damian Lillard being out. But if Jason Kidd ends up getting signed by the New York Knicks and they go above and beyond to get him out of his contract there in Dallas, I think they would only be doing that if they know something about Janis in the future of his tenure with the Milwaukee Bucks.

But do you think they look to tinker with this roster this offseason?

are asked to step in and fill those minutes. Right, those are supposed to be the farm system of which the Knicks are replenishing that bench talent with. But they may not even have the horses in the stable to be able to do it with a coach that can properly develop because they are very much in win now mode. We know the way that this collective bargaining agreement works. Your championship window lasts about three to four years before the players or the front office have some really tough

decisions to make. The good news for the Knicks at their star Kalen Brunson has taken what is essentially a pay cut right by signing his contract early, not maximizing on an extension, and McHale bridges as a team friendly deal. A lot of these guys are willing to take less dollars because they enjoy playing with each other. And I

thought they made that very apparent. But you're right. Even with all of those guys in the math work out like this, they still have about duce McBride off the bench right now, in one more year of Mitchell Robinson.

And that's about it. And if the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers have proved anything to us as playoffs, it's the importance of not only having twelve to thirteen guys, but twelve to thirteen guys that can play efficiently and have that same influence and seamlessly replace the starters in the form of any basketball adversity. The New York Knicks do not have that right now. They play slow, They play in the half court, and they're top heavy with

their Iron five. And there was once a time where you know what, if you have six to seven guys like the Hampton five with the Golden State Warriors, you just needed a Shawn Livingston off the bench. You just needed some David West and that was it. You could still win a title. I'm afraid those days have come and gone in the age of Payston space.

introduced Austin that he is now the guy. He's the loudest voice in the front office. All the final decisions will be his, meaning his dad Danny reports to him, and the general manager, Justin Zanik reports d Austin Ange. It's interesting the other thing they did, rob is you know, is they extended Will Hardy. You know, Tom Thibodeau goes to the Eastern Conference Finals, he loses his job. Will Hardy's won thirty three percent of his games and he

has a contract through like twenty thirty one. So what they've done is solidified a coaching staff in a front office and giving them all long term extensions in the hopes that at some point the talent on the floor will look a little bit better that has prior to this will be year four, okay of this project that really hasn't brought a lot of progress. They were front facing about being on serious concerning competition last year to try to get the number one pick.

And you know the answer to this, right, yeah, sure, yeah, you like wins and losses is dependent on the bullpen on the offense that day, and you could have a seven point zero ERA on the best team and have a great win loss record that doesn't show a whole lot. So with Will Hardy, he's coaching a team that had a player participation policy violation last year because the Utah Jas failed to be properly announcing, you know, the presence of lowry market in for some of these games and

getting accused of load management. So even the players that don't have the talent to compete at a championship level aren't even being provided, you know, to him, and every game was something different. There'd be a week of Walker Kessler out there with Sexton and Clarkson and then they'd be gone for a week. You know, I don't know many coaches that would be able to succeed. And Ryan Smith's a sharp guy, you know, certainly Danny Agees too, and they saw something in will Hardy that they feel

like has longevity and sustainability towards whatever they're working towards. Now, Austin comes in, and I'm sure a lot of fans that don't understand, you know, the experience that he has probably just see that last name and think, oh, we

know why he got this job, right, Is he qualified? Yeah? Like, listen, he's been with the bosson Celtics, have been responsible for a lot of their draft picks, coaching G League teams, you know, being in the being in the front office there, making a whole bunch of those this helping make a whole bunch of those decisions that ultimately led to a title in them being the favorites for a majority of this season before they were upset by the New York Knicks.

So this is not just you know, tap it in the kid from a scene from Succession who has like no experience involved with parks and tourism and now you're the that senior vice president of this entire division. No, no, no, no. He has been in these trenches for many, many years. So if he's the loudest voice in the room, I think it's that cohesion that he has already with Ryan Smith and Will Hardy because of his father. That'll make this such a seamless transition. And it may not pay

dividends right away because you brought it up yourself. This team just doesn't have the talent to compete. But the long term vision, you know, I trust them to make sharp decisions for sure.

But the Mitchell and Gobert trades at the time were kind of met with his like, holy smokes, Danny Ainge got what for Rudy, He got that much for Gobert, and he got that much for And the reason I bring it up is essentially the main piece, well there are two main pieces, but the main piece they were able to get for. Mitchell has turned out to be Larry Lowry Markenen, who was a really good player in college.

He was a Pac twelve kid when the Pac twelve existed at Arizona, and then he had some interesting moments in other stops Chicago, Cleveland, et cetera. Lands Here year one and when he was playing with ground ups Mike Conley, Kelly Olynock, et cetera.

even with Larry markinin. Who would be you know, the most desirable asset of any team that feels like they are one seven foot three and d guy away from being NBA champions, Right, And it certainly hurt that the Jazz didn't get a top two, top three pick because the whole point of keeping these guys on the roster was, well, if we get Cooper Flagg or an Ace Bailey or whoever is at the top here, you know we can hit the ground running and return to playoff relevancy because

of the lowie market and Walker Kessler. But falling that far down into the draft, you're really going to have to find I say, diamond in the rough. Like the number five pick has these expectations the equivalent of the second rounder. But we know that there's a pretty significant difference between Cooper Flag and the rest of the field, So I think that will change. You know, they what

their design is for this franchise moving forward. In the Oklahoma City example is what everyone is trying to replicate by the way. You know, coming into the twenty four to twenty five season, everyone was trying to be the Boston Celtics. They have success shooting threes, so we're going to shoot threes too. Guess what happened When the Charlotte Hornets at ten fifty five threes in the night, It does not hit the same like the Boston Celtics. You are not the Boston Celtics and you need to stop

emulating them. I think the same theory applies to Oklahoma City too. Now, it's certainly admirable that they were on this four year plan where the Jazz are right now, like the Thunder were so bad they were losing games by seventy plus points to the Memphis Grizzlies with some of those rosters right they were stacking up their draft picks, they were getting healthy, they were assembling in the shadows.

But there was two to three years where they had to go through it, and then their young talent got so good so quickly that shake builds with Alexander and Josh Giddy led that team to the play In Tournament as the ten seed, of which they ultimately lost in. But then that next year they end up tying from the number one overall seat in the Western Conference with their second round exit and then shake guilds as Alexander becomes MVP in year four when OKACE is clearly the

best team. So now someone like the Utah Jazz is saying, how can we do that? How can we grow our talent internal and then not have to stack our assets, not have to trade for a mercenary and do this the slow, methodical, authentic way, And someone like the Houston Rockets is trying to do that right now, right that they are refusing to trade their core the Amen Thompson's

and the Jalen Greens for Kevin Durant's out there. You want to beat the Golden State Warriors like they lost in Game seven this year, if you have Kevin Durant, that certainly wouldn't have been the case. Well, by trading for Kevin Durant, you do trade some of your long term future as well, right because they're not going to give them to you for free. The biggest question here though,

is Jazz fans need to think about this too. Who's your Shae Gilds is, Alexander, if you're trying to replicate what OKAC has accomplished, You're going to need someone to ascend to MVP status, doesn't actually have to win the award, but finish on the podium. And that's why I think Houston's gonna fall short because Jalen Green and alpahin Shangoon do not qualify for that right now, Who on the Utah Jazz can be that guy that franchise cornerstone that will affords you the luxury of time to do this

the right way. I don't know if that's on the roster right now.

And you know what Oklahoma City was able to turn Paul George into was SGA and five draft picks, one of which turned into Jalen and the Jazz didn't turn Mitchell into a star.

one of those guys on this roster. They just don't, at least not as of now.

The whole world knew that it was going to take years and years for Cleveland to return to relevancy, but eventually they got They got there a lot quicker and they expedited that that reloading because of that trade for Donovan Mitchell, the emergence of Theorius Garland, you know, so on and so forth. But not every front office is given that time. I looked at Phoenix, where you get a new owner and a new governor in town, and the new owners syndrome is need to make a good

first impression. You're only get one chance, right, so we're gonna go out there and we're going to make all of these trades to win. Now we're going to liquidate our future assets and we'll see what happens. Well, it didn't work out. You didn't even make the playoffs, and now you're stuck in the second apron and it's going to take years to recover. And those general managers get thrown under the bus, even though they probably didn't want

to even do that in the first place. I'm sure they all would love this long term plan that doesn't always parallel with the front office's direction of the business as well. So will Utah afford, will Ryan Smith afford that front office the time to try and replicate what Oklahoma City did. And if you don't have Shay Gilgess Alexander, then it's going to take more than four years. How long is the fan base willing to sit there and

go through that process? Punintended before you realize, like, all right, this is enough. Like you've tried to reset, it's time to just like return to some form of relevancy. So it's not as easy as it sounds. Otherwise everyone else would be doing it.

against OKAC. That's just my opinion. Like everyone else, I feel like I picked OKAC in five and impressed that they're leaving OKAC with a split.

a reality is crazy. And it's earned because Tyre's Halliburton keeps putting himself in this spot where he can create his own luck. And whether it was the shot to eliminate the Milwaukee Bucks, it was the step back on ty Jerome in game two where they really exhausted Donovan Mitchell and then you allow Halliburton to get to that right hand for the game winning three. We know what

the shot in Madison Square Garden in Game one. It hits off the back iron, it goes up into the rafters in somehow, some way it falls through that circle of iron. Twenty feet below it. You know, the math just does makes sense anymore. But these things keep happening. And then Game one happens as well, and against the team with this just historical defense in Oklahoma City, for them to steal that game, I am shocked, but I'm not surprised, right, I'm shocked. I'm not surprised because this

should be two to oh Oklahoma City. It has been utter domination in these finals thus far, both sides of the ball. The biggest lead for the Pacers in both of these games is three points. They led for point three seconds in Game one, and Oklahoma City probably feels like we are the far superior team because we can replicate everything that they do, but better right, they have made Tyree's Haliburton look quite mortal other than one shot

in this series. So not to take anything away from the Pacers, but their influence, especially on the defensive side of the ball with Andrew Nemhard and Aaron Neismith, is not being felt in the same way against Shay gilg as Alexander as it was some of the stars previously. It's due to shade size, his skill, his talent. But yeah, I do believe they're gonna fall a little short, and I've got OKC five as well.

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