In this offseason, the NY Knicks did not make any franchise-altering moves due to the lack of star power in this year’s class.
With that being said, the team made a few short-term and team-friendly deals, to help them improve for this upcoming season.
Last season, the Knicks exceeded expectations and made the playoffs, which is a feat many thought was not possible.
The Knicks, a very young team with a great head coach, went as far as their defense would take them, as they were one of the better defensive units in the NBA.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau has preached defense for essentially his whole career and helped the Knicks rank 4th in the entire NBA in defensive rating per NBA stats.
What grades would you give to each of the NY Knicks’ Free Agency moves?
Although the term “defense wins championships” may be a bit outdated, it helped this young and underwhelming roster to a top 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.
While this Knick team made their mark defensively all season, the offensive side of the ball was a completely different story.
They struggled all year offensively and their stellar defense was only able to take them so far.
When the first round of the playoffs came around, the Atlanta Hawks beat the Knicks in five games as the Hawks’ tremendous three-point shooting was too much for the Knicks to handle.
The offense simply was not good enough to keep up with a high-powered offense like the Hawks.
As important as defense may be, in order to succeed in the postseason, the Knicks needed to improve on the offensive end of the floor.
The Knicks did just that in signing players to very team-friendly deals that will significantly help the team’s porous defense.
Next, I will be grading both signings and re-signings that the team made to help not only keep the defensive core but also add offensive players as well.
NY Knicks Free agency Grade for Kemba Walker signing – A
Kemba Walker, the former ninth overall pick, has been a walking bucket since he entered the league in 2011 and is exactly what the Knicks needed.
The Bronx native was bought out by the Boston Celtics and upon hitting the open buyout market, ultimately chose his hometown on a two-year deal worth 17.8 million per Spotrac.
Kemba has had significant success at Madison Square Garden, dating back to his phenomenal performance in the Big East Tournament, including a game-winning shot that electrified the building.
Walker, excluding his rookie season, averages 20.4 points per game in nine seasons according to Basketball Reference.
The 31-year-old may have lost some of the explosiveness and speed that he once had but is a lethal three-point shooter and can still facilitate at a high level.
His loss of speed and explosiveness will not affect the Knicks as much as many may think. The Knicks do not run transition offense very often, as they were one of the slowest teams in the league in terms of pacing of play under coach Thibodeau.
While Walker is often viewed as a liability defensively, which could be problematic in Thibs’ system, the Knicks have enough talent around him defensively to still have a great defensive unit while improving massively offensively.
Ultimately, the Knicks’ offensive woes last season came when Elfrid Payton was on the court, which is why replacing him with a point guard with the scoring pedigree of Kemba Walker is a huge win.
NY Knicks Free agency Grade for Evan Fournier signing – B
Evan Fournier projects to be the team’s opening night starting Shooting Guard.
The Knicks replaced sharpshooter Reggie Bullock with another sharpshooter in Evan Fournier, but at a far steeper price.
While Fournier is a more well-rounded scorer than Bullock, it will be difficult to make the case that he is worth over $40 million more than what Bullock signed for.
Contract aside, the Knicks did add a player in Fournier who will give the Knicks offense, especially in the shooting category, a major upgrade.
According to Sports Reference, last season with two different teams, he averaged 17.1 points per game on 41.3% from three.
He dealt with the struggle of changing teams mid-season and having to learn a new system and still managed to maintain incredible shooting numbers.
While he provides the Knicks with an instant upgrade offensively, he also isn’t known to be a great defender.
The need for offense this offseason was extremely apparent after last season’s end, so the Knicks did what they needed to do.
Playing devil’s advocate, considering the money elite shooters are getting in the current free-agent market, i.e., Joe Harris and Duncan Robinson, they needed to take an aggressive approach to get the shooter that they wanted.
Fournier also does have a very team-friendly contract, being that the final year is a team option, which makes him an appealing trading piece.
In one of the more underwhelming free agent classes of recent memory, the Knicks gave a great shooter a team-friendly contract filling a hole in three-point shooting that was the demise of their playoff run last season.
NY Knicks Free agency Grade for Derrick Rose signing – B+
A 2021 6th man of the year candidate is coming back to the Knicks on a three-year deal to once again lead the Knicks’ bench unit.
Due to Derrick Rose’s career success under familiar head coach Tom Thibodeau, this reunion was very much expected.
Despite struggling with injury problems throughout the course of his career, Rose proves year after year that he is far from done.
Last season with the Knicks, per Sports Reference, he averaged 14.9 points per game to go with 4.2 assists and was one of the better bench players in the entire NBA.
His leadership is another aspect of his presence that is not shown on the stat sheet, as he was clutch for them and played his best basketball when it mattered most, in the postseason.
Rose is likely to slot into the same role he had last season, as the teams primary backup point guard and first player off the bench.
This means last year’s first round pick, Immanuel Quickley, will continue to play alongside Rose in the second unit, where Quickley excelled the most.
Rose’s minutes will also be reduced due to the addition of Kemba Walker which can be beneficial to his health.
Bringing back Rose while also adding more depth to the guard position puts Rose in an even better situation this year to succeed than last.
This was a great and very necessary re-signing by the Knicks and Rose is coming back to the team with less of a weight on his shoulder with the departure of Elfrid Payton.
NY Knicks Free agency Grade for Nerlens Noel signing – A-
Nerlens Noel is also coming back to the Knicks on a three-year deal and was the anchor for the Knicks defensively.
As an elite rim protector, especially due to starting center Mitchell Robinson’s inability to stay healthy, Noel has a tremendous amount of value to this Knicks team.
The Knicks ranked as one of the top defensive units in the NBA and that will remain the case with Noel on the court.
This past season, Noel averaged 2.2 blocks per game according to Land of Basketball, which ranked third in the entire league.
Along with his stellar defensive play, he is also very athletic and smart, which makes him valuable to the Knicks’ offense in the pick and roll and in transition.
He can catch alley oops and finish at a high level despite not having the lateral movement and shooting ability to score in the half court.
Due to his lack of all-around offensive production, Noel is often under looked despite being a crucial piece to the Knicks defensive success.
Last season, the Knicks were able to lock in the number four seed in the Eastern Conference despite their lack of offense.
This was because of the Knicks success on the defensive side of the ball, which largely had to do with Noel’s ability to protect the paint and limit easy buckets.
Being that the Knicks added so much firepower offensively in free agency, bringing back the best defensive player on the team was an absolute no-brainer.
NY Knicks Free agency Grade for Alec Burks signing – D+
While the Knicks had a fantastic offseason, this was the one move that they made that deserves a very low grade.
This low grade is less indicative of the talent of Alec Burks than the fit on the team.
Alec Burks was a huge piece off the bench this past season when he was healthy, as he shot a great 41% clip beyond the arc while averaging 12.7 points per game per Basketball-Reference.
He was the spark plug for the Knicks second unit and did a great job spacing the floor while also providing much needed scoring.
With the additions of Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier, this ultimately leaves either Alec Burks or this year’s first-round pick Quentin Grimes to get consistent minutes off the bench. Burks, at 30 years old, is a very good shooter but is not too great on the defensive side of the ball.
Grimes is a three and D player that has a tremendous amount of potential in Thibs system.
While Burks is slightly bigger than Grimes, Grimes is more than capable of playing the backup small forward position.
Also, while there is room for growth in Grimes’ game, Burks has already reached the peak of his career, which is another reason why bringing Burks back was a mistake.
While Burks had an extremely important role in the Knicks offense last season, the way the team has approached this offseason, there were just better options this year to fill his role.