So, if you
came into this season thinking that the Knicks would be good then you must be a
Knicks fan and if you are, I’m sorry to hear that. Last season provided fans of
the team a reason to have hope: they had the worst record in the league which
gave them the chance to potentially draft Zion Williamson, they had $74 million
in cap space after dealing Porzingis to the Mavericks for some picks and three
guys who didn’t really matter and one of the biggest free agency markets in
recent offseasons where they could use their two max slots and their “big
market appeal” to lure superstars like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. I mean
come on, what superstar doesn’t want to waste four years of their career on a
bad team with a horrible owner not making the playoffs, it sounds like a good
time to me.
But unfortunately,
and in true Knicks fashion, nothing worked out in their favor. KD and Kyrie
both chose to go to their neighbors in Brooklyn and they fell to the 3rd
pick in the draft. This must’ve been heart-breaking to that one fan who got a
Zion tattoo a little before the Lottery.
https://twitter.com/MasterTes/status/1128454941335592966
Remember
kids, don’t get tattoos of things that haven’t happened, because you run the
risk of looking stupid if it doesn’t happen. But hey, your body your choice, I
guess?
Anyway, so
how did the front office bounce back from these two devastating blows to the
organization? Yep, you guessed it, by signing a boatload of power forwards
(four to be exact). On top of a disappointing free agency class, the Knicks
overhauled both their coach and president in the hopes of a brighter
future, but we’ve been down this road before. Nothing is going to change if
James Dolan owns the team so until he sells it or until the Knicks sign Michael
Jordan, they shall be stuck in this cycle of never-ending disappointment.
June 20th
– NBA Draft & Rookies:
The Knicks
entered the 2019 NBA Draft with both 3rd and 55th overall
pick. They selected R.J. Barrett (SG/SF) and Kyle Guy (PG) respectively however
they ended up trading Kyle Guy to the Kings in exchange for Ignas Brazdeikis
(SF).
Trades:
June 21st
– As mention above,
the Knicks trade 55th pick (the draft rights to Kyle Guy) to the
Kings for the 47th pick (the draft rights to Ignas Brazeikis).
Free
Agency
After
missing out on KD, Kyrie, and every other decent free agent, the Knicks had to
use their cap space to sign multiple players to fill up their roster. Warning,
this is going to be long so bear with me.
July 8th
– They sign Julius
Randle (PF) to a 3-year $62.1 million contract with only $4 million partially guaranteed
in 2021-22.
July 8th
– They sing Bobby
Portis (PF/C) to a 2-year $30.75 million contract with a team option in
2020-21.
July 8th
– They sign Taj
Gibson (PF) to a 2-year $20 million contract. 2020-21 is a team option.
July 8th – They sign Elfrid Payton (PG) to a 2-year $16 million
contract.
July 8th – They sign Wayne Ellington (SG) to a 2-year $16 million
contract with a 2020-21 team option.
July 15th – They signed Reggie Bullock (SG) to a 2-year $8.2 million
contract.
July 15th – They signed Marcus Morris (PF) to a 1 year $15 million
contract.
You know I like these moves by the Knicks though, most of the
players they signed had team options for the 2020-21 season which will set them
up to have the cap room to sign a superstar in the 2021-22 offseason. They
probably won’t do it, but at least they can.
Midseason
December 6th - After a 4-18 start, the Knicks decided to fire their
coach, David Fizdale, and was replaced by Mike Miller (interim). Fiz only
coached 104 games for the Knicks and had a record of 21-83, yikes. He was their
6th coach in the last 11 years, so take that for data. Also, if
you’re asking if that Mike Miller is the same one that hit a three with his
shoe off then yes, he’s the same one.
February 4th – The Knicks fire their long time president Steve
Mills. He was replaced by their general manager Scott Perry for the interim
March 2nd – Leon Rose was named the new president of basketball
operations for the Knicks. He’s an agent with multiple well-known clients like
Devin Booker, Karl Anthony Towns, Joel Embiid, and Chris Paul.
Signings – Nothing to report
Trades
February 6th – 3 Team trade
|
New York Knicks
get |
Los Angeles
Clippers get |
Washington
Wizards get |
|
|
|
|
|
Maurice Harkless
(Clippers) |
Marcus Morris
(Knicks) |
Jerome Robinson
(Clippers) |
|
Draft rights to
Issuf Sanon (Wizards) |
Isaiah Thomas
(Wizards) |
|
|
2020 1st
round pick (Clippers) |
|
|
|
2021 top 4
protected 1st round pick. Chance to swap with Clippers. |
|
|
|
2021 Detroit 2nd
round pick (Clippers) |
|
|
March 11th – The NBA suspends the season due to COVID-19.
Overtime Notes:
June 26th – The Knicks wave Allonzo Trier (SG). I don’t know why they
did that, I mean yeah, he’s a bad defender and all but still, he’s a great
scoring and he’s very efficient (88 games, 45.4% from the field and 38.4% from
three.) He’s still young so I think this wasn’t a good move, he could’ve been a
useful rotation player and could’ve been used as a trade asset for teams that
need more shooting.
July 30th – The Knicks hire Tom Thibodeau to be their new head coach. Just
a little bit about him, he’s a former coach of the year in 2012 with the Bulls
and a champion as an assistant coach to the 08 Celtics. He’s had great success
with D-rose in Chicago and even brought the Timberwolves back to the playoffs
in 2017-18 after a 13-year absence. One more fun fact, he was an assistant
coach on the Knicks for 8 years from 96-04 which means he was apart of the
magical 8th seeded Knicks going to the Finals as an 8th
seed in the 1998-99 season.
Preview.
This picture was taken from basketballreference.com, click
the link for more information https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/NYK.html
The 2020-21 season doesn’t look like it might be any easier
for the Knicks because of the position that they want to be in. They want to
have cap space for the 2021-22 season, so they will most likely be unlikely to
commit to any long-term contracts unless it’s for one of the top free agents of
this year’s class. They desperately need more scoring as the Knicks were the 2nd
worst team scoring team with 105.8 points per game. Guys like Jordan Clarkson
and Fred Van Vleet should be prime targets for them.
They need to hope that Tibs can help save the careers of Knox
and Smith Jr. because they have been awful for the past two seasons. Although
Robinson and Barrett look solid, they need those two other young guys to step
up and be good at basketball again.
Now let’s look at the draft, this year’s lottery saw the
Knicks once again fall from their projected pick as they fell from the 6th
to the 8th pick. As for who I think they should take, they pretty
much need help in every position except maybe center. With that being said I
guess they should value offense over defense because this is such a great
defensive-minded coach, so I don’t have worries on that end. So, I guess they
should go after a guy like Devin Vassell (SG/SF) or Tyrese Haliburton (PG).
These are guys who can score and are decent defenders so I think they should
fit right in with Thibs. They also have the Clippers pick which should be in
the 20s, so they have another opportunity to get some nice young talent.
Things with the Knicks never seem to ever be good and I don’t
expect next season to be different, there won’t be some magical turn around a
trip to the playoffs. But that’s not what next season is supposed to be, the
goals for Thibs and Rose are to develop a good culture and their young players,
maintain cap space for 2021-22, and to be competitive. Without those four
things then there’s no way they attract big-time free agents, and this would
just be a repeat of 2019. This won’t be easy but hey, somebody has to do
it.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment