NY Knicks: Should NY make this B/R trade for Lonzo Ball?

One of the more popular names amongst NY Knicks fans when asked who they’d like to man the point guard spot for the next 5-10 years is Lonzo Ball.

In fact, I’ve mentioned trading for him on numerous occasions.

Ball is entering restricted free agency this summer and is likely to garner a ton of attention from potential suitors such as the Chicago Bulls and our New York Knicks as examples.

It was a surprising move when the Pelicans opted to not re-sign Lonzo and allow him to test the open market but that restriction is really the killer because the Pels can match any offer that comes his way.

The Knicks do have the ability to vastly overpay and outbid anyone seeing how they’ve got approximately $50 million in cap space to play around with this offseason.

Would you want the NY Knicks to do this B/R trade for Lonzo Ball?

But do they really want to commit upwards of $25 million per season to Lonzo Ball to ensure no one else has a chance to grab him?

Definitely not.

The alternative of course is the Knicks can work out a sign-and-trade deal with the Pelicans, this way they can get Ball for a much more fairly priced contract, Ball goes to his destination of choice, and New Orleans doesn’t lose Lonzo for nothing.

Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report recently wrote an article covering what he believed to be The Best Trade Every NBA Team Can Actually Make This Offseason.

One of which was the following trade:

Swartz went on to say:

"The Knicks would be a great landing spot for Ball, a former teammate of Julius Randle who could pair nicely with RJ Barrett in the backcourt.While the Knicks have the cap space necessary to sign the free-agent floor general, the Pelicans reserve the right to match whatever offer he gets. The two sides could work out a deal, however, while getting Ball to agree to a move to New York.In exchange for not matching Ball’s contract, the Pelicans receive Robinson, a terrific young defensive center to join Zion Williamson in the frontcourt.Hayes, who only just turned 21 and was the No. 8 overall pick in 2019, also heads to New York as part of the deal."

For as many times as I’ve traded for Lonzo on this site, I have never even thought of a trade like this one.

I kinda love it.

As much as it hurts to lose Mitch, the Knicks get Jaxson Hayes who isn’t the worst consolation prize if you ask me.

Hayes is also under team control for the next 2 years on his rookie contract and the Knicks would also have his restricted rights so they could basically get 6 years of Hayes to groom him into their center of the future.

In regards to Lonzo, the one knock on him is that he doesn’t penetrate the painted area like most of Thibs’ point guards have in the past but I’m sure that’s something the Knicks’ developmental staff can work on being that he’s still just 23 years old.

Other than that, he’s a big guard with tremendous court awareness, shoots the 3-ball well, and is a tremendous perimeter defender.

I think he would be a perfect fit in New York. Mitchell Robinson is coming into the final year of his rookie deal and the Knicks have a huge decision on their hands as to whether or not they should re-sign him.

Give that responsibility to New Orleans…

Also, Robinson is from NOLA so a little homecoming could be nice for him.

What do you say, Knicks family? Would you pull the trigger on this trade?