The New York Knicks don’t need to sign a center. That doesn’t make an evaluation of the best available centers any less of an intriguing activity.
Few players are quite as underrated and under-appreciated as New York Knicks center Robin Lopez. His contributions may not always show up in the stat sheet, but Lopez has made his mark in a vast number of ways during his brief tenure with the Knicks.
Valuable as he may be, it’d behoove the Knicks to study and acknowledge the impressive crop of talent entering free agency in 2016.
Three available centers have established themselves as star-caliber players, and two of those high-profile names will be entering unrestricted free agency. The others may not have the same aura, but their contributions are strong enough to be legitimate forces on the free agency front.
Their relevance to New York’s free agency aspirations depends entirely on how Phil Jackson views Lopez’s contributions at the 5.
Lopez signed a four-year contract worth $54 million in 2015. He finished his first season in New York with averages of 10.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 offensive boards, 1.4 assists, and 1.6 blocks on 53.9 percent shooting from the field.
Parting ways with Lopez would be premature, to say the very least, but that doesn’t make the following five players any less intriguing.
Note: Players with player or team options were not included.
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