3 Former Knicks that NY can bring back with the Hardship Exception

Former Knicks Player #1 — Luke Kornet 

First up we have Luke Kornet, a 26-year-old stretch 5 who has two seasons of experience with the New York Knicks. Kornet went un-drafted in 2017 but proved valuable for New York when he got the chance to play in the NBA consistently after Kristaps Porzingis tore his ACL. The 7’2 Vanderbilt product only averaged as much as 7 points with New York.

Despite this, he shot around 36% from behind the arc and at the very least was able to serve as a solid bench piece. Ever since his brief tenure in the Big Apple Kornet has bounced around spending a couple seasons in Chicago before playing on the Boston Celtics throughout the duration of last season. Currently, Kornet resides in Maine is playing for the Maine Celtics, the G-League affiliate of the Boston Celtics. He’s eligible to be signed off the team and with the Knicks’ current status, they should strongly consider bringing him back.

While none of the Knicks bigs are in protocol (for now), a common issue amongst them is that they aren’t strong offensive players. Mitchell Robinson, Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson have made just one 3-pointer this season combined amongst themselves and that came from Taj Gibson this past Thursday against the Houston Rockets.

By signing Kornet, the Knicks get an experienced NBA vet who can spread the floor and add some diversity to the lineup.

He doesn’t have to get major minutes on a nightly basis, but he gives guys like Noel and Robinson who have been injury prone this year to take a load off and stay healthy. I don’t expect him to make a season changing difference, but bringing back Kornet could turn out to be a fun little experiment.