Knicks Links: Jim Boeheim throws shade at Phil Jackson

Welcome back, friends!

I know we’re like frustratingly, dangerously, excitingly just a few weeks away from preseason, which is awesome! But until then, we got some sub-par there’s-still-no-real-basketball-going-on-yet links. Stay strong!

First, here’s one of my favorite oldies ever:

¿Cómo están Los Knicks?

— Jim Boeheim, Syracuse head coach since forever and former coach of Carmelo Anthony, had a thing or two to say about the current Melo situation. Per Adam Zagoria:

“I think in reality it would’ve been better if they let Phil make the trade and then got rid of him,” Boeheim, who coached Anthony to the 2003 NCAA championship at Syracuse, told me at the Garden State Basketball Clinic at Montclair (N.J.) Immaculate Conception High School. “Now the new guys are going to be held responsible for the deal and nobody’s going to give much up [for Anthony in a trade]. So they’re going to end up not getting a lot for him and it’s really because of what Phil did in poisoning the air.”

Can’t say I agree with Jimmy B here. If Phil had traded Melo for, say, Ryan Anderson just to get him outta here, that would probably be decidedly worse than just keeping him another year. But what do I know?!

— Eric Snyder at Daily Knicks writes that the Knicks’ youth movement may have already failed after the recent non-guaranteed signing of Jarrett Jack. Eric, I’m prescribing you a deep breath and a stiff drink. Everything will be alright, buddy!

— I very much appreciate this piece on Damyean Dotson by Zach Braziller at the NY Post, which tackles the issue of D-Dot’s alleged sexual assault at Oregon head-on in an attempt to understand one of our rooks better. This particular passage really helped ease my mind:

Two NBA teams The Post spoke with conducted thorough investigations into Dotson, and were comfortable enough to have him on their draft boards and select him had the Knicks not picked him 44th overall.

“We found it was an isolated incident,” a scout from one team said.

“He got a raw deal,” said an Oregon teammate, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Unbelievable attitude and work ethic. He’s a really good guy.”

We’ll probably never know what really happened at Oregon, but this piece didn’t read like a puff piece designed to paint Dotson in a good light. It took on the facts, and Braziller did whatever he could to get as thorough of an opinion of Dotson as possible from multiple sources. I’d definitely recommend reading it.

— Colin McGowan at RealGM comes with a nice piece about Kristaps Porzingis and what he could become, as well as a little realism in regards to him reaching his immense potential.

— Moke Hamilton at Basketball Insiders writes that Carmelo stands to hurt the Knicks on his way out of town. To which I say — only if they let him!

— Steve Mills and Jeff Hornacek have both seen Hoodie Melo in action and lived to tell the tale.

— John Kachnowski at Sir Charles in Charge writes that the Knicks have further muddied the starting point guard spot by signing Jarrett Jack. I really think people are reading too much into a non-guaranteed camp invite.

That’s all I got for today, y’all. Enjoy!