New York Knicks: A New Era Is On The Rise In New York
With Carmelo Anthony potentially on his way out, a new era is on the rise for the New York Knicks. Can Phil Jackson build through the draft?
After the way Phil Jackson treated Carmelo Anthony, don’t expect any big name free agents to want to sign with the New York Knicks for as long as he is in charge. If Jackson wants to have any real success, he needs to find young talent through the draft.
Knicks fans haven’t had much to be happy about since Jackson took the reins as team president. Bad trades, failed free agent signings, and, of course, zero playoff appearances have stained his legacy as an executive.
Not to mention bad-mouthing the Knicks’ biggest star in recent years. That included sub-tweeting him a number of times, and finally coming out and saying: “He’ll be better off somewhere else“.
One thing is for sure, however: Jackson has made the best draft decision the franchise has seen since 1985, when the Knicks drafted Patrick Ewing.
During Jackson’s tenure in New York, we as fans expected free agents to want to sign in the Big Apple due to his championship success as a head coach. That simply hasn’t happened, causing Anthony to not get a true shot at one last playoff run while wearing the Knicks’ orange and blue.
With that being the case, that brought Phil Jackson to focus more on the draft and shaping players to fit his style of play.
Jackson also managed to keep his finger off the trigger in trade talks involving the Knicks’ 2017 lottery pick, which fell to seventh overall after the tiebreaker involving the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The beauty in all of this is that Jackson actually has a chance to save this franchise from heading in the wrong direction (unless James Dolan finds a way). Many columns in Kristaps Porzingis’ stats improved as he saw more minutes from his rookie to sophomore season.
Via Basketball-Reference:
If Anthony gets traded, however, Porzingis will need a new partner in crime.
Willy Hernangomez played tremendously well throughout his rookie season. He averaged 8.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in just 18.4 minutes per game. These are solid numbers, and we should look forward to Hernangomez to play even better next season.
What the Knicks need now is firepower on the perimeter.
At some point in time, whether it be this summer or when his contract expires in 2019, Anthony will not be playing in New York. This is going to create a huge scoring void that should be filled somewhere in this upcoming draft.
The Knicks seem to have set their sights on two players in the upcoming draft: De’Aaron Fox of Kentucky and Frank Ntilikina of LNB Pro A’s Strasbourg. Guys like Markelle Fultz (Washington), Lonzo Ball (UCLA), and Josh Jackson (Kansas) will most likely allbe off the board by the time the Knicks select at No. 7.
Between Fox and Ntilikina, both players would slide into the Knicks’ rotation nicely depending on what the team decides to do with free agent guard Derrick Rose this summer.
Once the Carmelo Anthony era in New York is over, the Knicks will have a real chance to build a franchise with players they have drafted themselves.
Must Read: Early May 2017 NBA Mock Draft
Other notable draft selections for the New York Knicks would be Malik Monk (Kentucky), Jason Tatum (Duke), and Dennis Smith (N.C. State).