2019 Redraft: NY Knicks land a flawed potential superstar

With three players from the 2019 NBA Draft (RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, and Luka Samanic) all now currently on the Knicks roster, it felt like a fun time to take a stab at a 2019 redraft.

The 2019 NBA Draft is a wild one to try and evaluate at this stage.

2019 Redraft: New York Knicks

These players are only in their third year in the league. Your third year in any career is usually when you start to make a leap.

Still, we’ve had players already make an All-Star game from this class. We have a current dark-horse MVP candidate from this class. You also have a player just starting to turn the corner in their careers.

And that’s just in the top three picks.

Do you put more weight on what a player has shown already or what high ceiling they might still be able to reach?

You also have some players in this draft (Cameron Johnson comes to mind here) who found themselves on teams that were just about to take off and thus have a much higher win shares number than some other draftees who may be more talented on paper.

There is also the elephant in the room (pun not intended): where in the world should Zion Williamson go in a redraft?

He’s an incredibly talented player, but he has yet to step on a basketball court in his third season.

Knicks fans love R.J. Barrett, but where do the numbers put him?

This redraft is certainly in the eye of the beholder.

For me, I tried to create a formula combining total games played, win shares, career Box Plus/Minus (BPM), and career value-over-replacement-player (VORP). It’s helpful for me in these situations to put as much data to my eye test as possible.

I also value certain pieces of that formula more than others.

Whatever you value, I’m sure the results will ruffle some feathers, but I’m just telling you what the data shows.