New York Knicks at a crossroads with the health of Kristaps Porzingis
The New York Knicks have to make sure not to rush their star player back from injury in the hopes of landing a star free agent next summer.
Heading into the 2018-19 season, the New York Knicks have an unfortunate set of circumstances on their hands.
Kristaps Porzingis, the otherworldly talent and franchise cornerstone, is still rehabbing a torn ACL suffered last February, and his return could come anywhere from December to March or maybe not until the following season.
Meanwhile, the organization is looking to sign big-name free agents in the summer of 2019 by selling a nucleus of young talent led by Porzingis himself.
The only issue is that as a result of his surgery, nobody quite knows just how good Porzingis will be upon returning, which could provide hesitancy from the likes of Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler and others when it comes time to pick a team.
The Knicks obviously don’t want to rush their All-Star back before he’s ready for fear of causing further damage, but his talent will be one of, if not the main selling point to any free-agent willing to listen, making it a tough sell to make if he’s less than what he was before the injury.
This is something the trio of Scott Perry, Steve Mills and new head coach David Fizdale will have to make work as Porzingis progresses in his recovery.
It would obviously help a great deal at the negotiating table if they could sell the notion of a fully healthy Unicorn assuming he returns with an ample amount of time to prove such, but it’d be silly to ruin the potential future of their best player just to have that chip in their back pocket come July.
The Knicks reportedly consider Kyrie Irving their “No. 1 target” next offseason. But are elite players ready to consider the Knicks as a free agent destination again? We had some, um, differing opinions on set today 😎 pic.twitter.com/rrCEkwZP6E
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) September 14, 2018
New York’s brass appeared to do everything right this summer in setting themselves up for the next. In the words of the infamous Sam Hinkie, they need to trust the process they’ve been working on and have confidence in what they’ve built independently of Porzingis and his left leg.
Next. Early pros and cons of a Kyrie Irving pursuit. dark
This is not to say his health isn’t vital to the future success of the Knicks, but potential leverage in free agency shouldn’t come at the expense of something possibly detrimental, because at the end of the day, if he were to return earlier than suggested and re-injure that knee, it would be far worse than any free-agent whiff the Knicks could possibly imagine.