UNDER DOGS
Vegas expects little from Knicks, Nets
Las Vegas has spoken and it is sensing another dreadful season for the Knicks and Nets.
Westgate Sports Book set a mark of 30.5 wins for the Knicks in its just-released over-under numbers for the season.
If the line proves prescient it would be nearly identical to the Knicks’ victory total for 2016-17, when they posted a miserable 31-51 record to miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
The Nets, despite some interesting backcourt modifications with the additions of D’Angelo Russell and Allen Crabbe, are being pegged by the sportsbook for 28.5 wins. The Nets won 20 games last season.
Odds were also posted for teams to win the Atlantic Division, with the Knicks at 60-1 and the Nets at 100-1. Last month, the sportsbook posted odds to win an NBA title with the Knicks at 500-1 and Nets at 1,000-1.
Westgate put the over-under at 56.5 for the Celtics, while the Cavaliers are at 53.5. Reports said the Cavaliers have yet to sign off on Isaiah Thomas’ physical, though it is still believed the trade of Kyrie Irving to Boston for Thomas will go through.
In the Western Conference, the defending champion Warriors’ over-under is 67.5 wins. Former Knick Derrick
Rose, now with the Cavaliers, has no doubt he will be ready for the season.
He has been working out at least five days a week, strength work some days, agility work other days, along with on-court work.
Last year fuels him, in many ways. It started with him facing a civil trial in Los Angeles over a rape allegation that a jury did not believe. It ended with him playing for a bad Knicks team, whose season was dominated by drama off the floor — the James DolanCharles Oakley mess, the eventual departure of Phil Jackson and the ongoing talk of Carmelo Anthony getting traded someplace.
“On the court was when it was the craziest to me,” Rose said. “Some of the strategies and all that, I didn’t understand. It was confusing. It was just a learning experience.”
The Knicks have reached out to Houston native and rookie shooting guard Damyean Dotson regarding his welfare.
Dotson, who attended the University of Houston his final two years, spends the summer in the flood-ravaged Texas city. The Knicks said Dotson, their secondround pick, and his family are safe.
Dotson said after summer league in July he hoped to continue training with Rockets star James Harden, as he had in the past.
Sasha Vujacic, the Knicks’ backup guard of two years, will play for Fiat Torino of the Italian league, the team announced Tuesday.
Vujacic, a Jackson favorite because of his fit in the triangle offense, averaged three points and 1.2 assists in 9.7 minutes per game last season. Without Jackson around and with rookie point guard Frank Nti
likina as well as veteran backup Ramon Sessions, the Knicks no longer had room for Vujacic.
The 33-year-old Slovenian has bounced around since being a late first-round pick by the Lakers in 2004, including stints in Italy, Spain and Turkey.