- Grimes defended the work ethic of teammate Julius Randle, who battled ankle issues throughout the playoffs, Begley adds. Randle continued to play after aggravating a late-season injury to his left ankle in the series against Cleveland. “It just really shows you that nobody should ever be questioning his toughness, how much he wants it, how much he cares about the team, how much he cares about winning,” Grimes said. “… He cares a lot about this team. He does everything he can possibly (do) to make sure his body is right, to make sure he’s in the best shape possible to make sure he can give it all.”
- Grimes told Ethan Sears of The New York Post that he’s excited to have Donte DiVincenzo on the team, even though the free agent addition might cut into his playing time. Sears suggests they might have a training camp battle for a starting wing role. “I think everything you do is competition,” Grimes said. “You wanna have the best players out there every day to make us better. Competing against him, Josh (Hart), Jalen (Brunson), (Immanuel Quickley) is gonna make everybody better, really.”
- In addition to giving the Knicks more shooting, Brunson believes DiVincenzo will bring an “edge” to the team in whatever role he plays (Twitter link from Knicks Videos).
Appearing on “The Hoop Genius” podcast, former Knicks general manager Scott Perry suggested that New York didn’t view now-Cavaliers All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell as being quite good enough to be worth surrendering all of the team’s most valuable trade assets, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. Perry explained the front office’s thinking at the time.
“Obviously we made a push to trade for him,” Perry said (hat tip to Bondy for the transcription). “But it was going to be done within reason. He was a good player but he needed more around him to win. Because if he was that singular force, Utah probably would’ve been in the conference finals if he were that singular force. … But he wasn’t that singular force. That’s not a criticism against him. That’s just an evaluation that you must make.”
“[Mitchell’s] an excellent basketball player,” Perry acknowledged. “Multi-year All-Star. Tremendous young man. New York kid… But you got to ask yourself, if the other team you’re trading with is wanting to take two-thirds or three-quarters of all your young talent, and all of your draft capital, is what’s left behind going to good enough for you to win rather than hold on to what you have and be a little patient?”
There’s more out of New York:
- Newly-signed Knicks swingman Donte DiVincenzo is getting comfortable with his new comrades, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. “I think in a weird way, it’s the third team in two seasons, if you will,” DiVincenzo said. “But this team, coaching staff, front office, everybody’s done a great job of making me feel like I’ve been on the team for a long time.” DiVincenzo was traded by the Bucks to the Kings midway through the 2021/22 season, and then signed with the Warriors for 2022/23 on a one-year deal. Through his first three games with New York, the shooting guard is averaging 7.0 PPG on .381/.308/.500 shooting splits, along with 3.0 RPG, 1.0 APG and 1.0 SPG.
- The Knicks opted to not rest anybody on the second night of an early-season back-to-back, writes Botte in a separate piece. New York fell 96-87 to the Pelicans on Saturday, in a turnover-heavy, inefficient shooting affair. “Less than 24 hours and a time change is kind of weird. Especially for the beginning of the season, but of course a little bit of fatigue today, but that’s not really any excuse at the end of the day,” small forward RJ Barrett said. “When we come out here, we gotta give our best effort and play our best game.”
- Former Knicks lottery pick Obi Toppin, who was traded to the Pacers in exchange for two second-round draft picks this summer, spoke to Bondy about his time in New York and his exit from the franchise. “It’s nothing personal,” Toppin said. “It’s just the business side of things. Obviously I was upset at times but you got to get past that.”