NY Knicks Free Agency: The case against DeMar DeRozan
By Adam Kester
As the NY Knicks enter the early stages of the offseason, the list of players who could potentially be linked to New York will be bottomless. One of the names that will surely resuscitate is unrestricted free agent DeMar DeRozan.
DeMar DeRozan is near the top of the 2021 free agent talent, and the NY Knicks will have more money to spend than any other team. So should the soon-to-be 32-year-old slasher be on New York’s list of targets?
NY Knicks: DeMar Derozan isn’t an ideal fit
When it comes to most professional sports teams’ free agency, especially New York Knicks free agency, there are typically two extreme crowds, the “Don’t spend anything at all unless it’s a superstar” group and the “It’s time to throw money around and get overly excited about every player” group.
There’s a middle ground for a team in the Knicks’ current position that involves steady planning of simultaneously improving the roster for next season while not ruining flexibility 2-4 years from now.
Unless a major trade is on the horizon, the Knicks are going to want to add to what worked from them in 2020-21. Tom Thibodeau, Julius Randle, and RJ Barrett are at the core of the long-term nucleus, and they want to add players that will mesh well with the system that they have in place for years to come.
Does DeMar DeRozan do that?
There are elements to DeRozan’s game that you can say answer some of the Knicks’ needs. Still, there are aspects to his game that may generate problems.
Looking at DeRozan’s fit with this New York team, there seem to be more red flags than checked boxes.