Knicks Links: Tying up loose ends as training camp begins

This news cycle has been rather eventful for the Knicks.

Carmelo Anthony’s trade to the Thunder is finalized and I’m not dealing with this as well as I thought I would be.

• Alright, more on Melo later. I’d like to kick off this links article with the best thing ever. According to this piece by Marc Berman of the New York Post, new Knick big man and one third of the trade package the Knicks got in return for Anthony, Enes Kanter, woke up in the middle of the night to punch himself because he couldn’t believe he was going to be a Knick!!!!

He’s waking up in the middle of the night and punching himself!!! He’ll fit right in with the Knicks and their fans!

• Unlike Trillballins, who is constantly trying to get back to the old him, Kristaps Porzingis is looking to the future. ESPN’s Ian Begley asked about KP’s relationship with Jeff Hornacek, Knicks execs, and Melo during his availability at the Knicks’ training camp on Monday.

The most notable quote from the piece is what he thinks of the current competition in the Eastern Conference:

"I think that's kind of a losing mentality if you're hoping for the conference to get worse so you can make the playoffs," he said. "No matter what's going on in the East or West, we have to try to be the best team we can."

• Marc Berman writes about New York’s logjam at the center position. In the article, he says this:

While general manager Scott Perry said the starting center job will be one of the most important battles of camp, he admitted something could happen in terms of a trade. Who knows if Kanter, 25, becomes more of a two-way player after his 33-pound weight loss and renders Hernangomez a trade chip down the road.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I mean I get it. I just wasn’t totally expecting to read those words. At least not now.

• Carmelo Anthony is as much to blame as the Knicks are for the relative disaster that was the Melo era, writes John Schmeelk. I feel like this has been written about ad nauseam since 2014 and will continue to be written about into the future. It’s a fair discussion, and I think John’s arguments make a lot of sense, especially the stuff he says about Melo at the 4 instead of the 3.

Which reminds me...

hehehehe, true.

• SBNation’s Kristian Winfield offers a more one-sided account of the Melo era. Generally, this is the one I will tend to subscribe to.
• Friend of the site Jason Concepcion marvels at Melo’s one final magnum opus in New York: his defeat of Phil Jackson.
• Mike Vorkunov puts together a post-mortem for the Melo era for the New York Times. Before I get into it, I’d first like to point out how much I love legacy media publications for writing NBA as N.B.A. Those archaic style-guides are great.

OK, enough about that. Vorkunov basically writes more of the same; Porzingis wants to leave the past in the past, Enes Kanter is expensive, plays bad defense and punched himself, Dougie McBuckets also plays bad defense but he can shoot and Joakim Noah is still an employee of the Knicks.

• Joakim Noah just wants to get a little good old-fashioned redemption this season, according to Marc Berman. He’s backed into a bit of a corner because of, y’know, suspensions and injuries and stuff but fear not! He’s at peace with all the money he’s made, so he just wants to show us all that he’s actually good.

So I guess all I have to say about that is to please enjoy this terrible free throw accompanied by Titanic music:

• Finally, here’s a very important story with a totally amazing visual by Carter Rodriguez of SBNation’s Cleveland Cavaliers affiliate Fear The Sword. Open for a surprise.

There should be plenty more news about the Knicks coming out in the next few days. We will update you all on those right here! Joakim Noah updates available only circumstantially!