Why the New York Knicks don’t need to only draft “win-now” prospects

New York Knicks: Value is everything in the NBA Draft

Get the best player available. Especially when you have two mid-1st round picks just 2 spots apart.

Without getting into any deep dives of prospect analysis, I can do some “realistic” forecasting of who the Knicks may go for.

Dividing the prospects up into 3 categories: The trade-up targets, the safe picks, and the high-ceiling picks.

The trade-up targets:

• James Bouknight
• Davion Mitchell
• Moses Moody
• Keon Johnson
• Josh Giddey

When it comes to trading up, Moody and Bouknight are the most popular names but don’t completely rule out one of the more “unknown” high-ceiling players like Giddey and Johnson.

Giddey has incredible playmaking and size on the wing that is absent from the New York Knicks’ current roster, and Keon Johnson is a top-8 player on a lot of boards due to his record-breaking athleticism and potential as a scorer.

The safe picks

• Jared Butler
• Corey Kispert
• Chris Duarte

All great options who could fit into a part of New York’s rotation right away. You can always use more shooting and all of these prospects can bring that to the team’s offense.

This isn’t to poo-poo what these players can be down the line in their careers, but more so to highlight their ability to immediately step into a role. They could be valuable additions to New York’s 2021-22 rotation.

The high-ceiling picks

• Ziaire Williams
• Tre Mann
• Sharife Cooper
• Jared Springer
• Isaiah Jackson

A wide variety of players with different skillsets and projections, but I think one of these five players should 100% be on the Knicks’ roster next season.

Again, there is no single way to do this. Maybe the ideal setup would be to draft one of the more raw prospects with one pick and a more surefire player with the other? Kispert/Springer? Duarte/Ziaire? Butler/Jackson?

What do you want the Knicks to do in the upcoming draft?