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A perfect but realistic Knicks 2022 draft night

ByMark Wessol|
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - APRIL 04: Ochai Agbaji #30 of the Kansas Jayhawks cuts down the net after defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels 72-69 during the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament National Championship at Caesars Superdome on April 04, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - APRIL 04: Ochai Agbaji #30 of the Kansas Jayhawks cuts down the net after defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels 72-69 during the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament National Championship at Caesars Superdome on April 04, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

The NBA Draft is slowly approaching and while we wait for the lottery on May 17 to officially dictate where the New York Knicks will pick, let’s explore a dream draft night.

The Knicks currently sit in the 11th-overall position, holding a 9.4% chance of getting a top 4 pick, and a 1.5% chance of getting to draft No. 1 overall. While we all will pray that New York will get some luck, I will be basing this draft night purely on projections with one first-rounder and one second-rounder.

What would a perfect draft night look like for the New York Knicks?

I’ve written about the Knicks and draft prospects before, including Bennedict Mathurin and Mark Williams. And to be quite honest, if New York drafts one of them that’d be a great draft in my eyes.

However, I have been doing more and more research on these prospects, and the more I look at this class, the more confused I get when I don’t see Ochai Agbaji’s name in the top 5.

That’s how good I think he can be. He’s an elite defender, has an efficient and quick release 3-point jump shot, has impressive athleticism and displayed individual progression over four years at Kansas… I mean come on, I can’t be the only one head over heels for this kind of player.

He has a good release point with no hesitation, which is clutch. This isn’t the only example of this kind of shot from Agbaji either because he’s done it time and time again.

In his senior season, he averaged 18.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, and shot 41% from three while becoming a national champion.

He is an “older” rookie coming into the league at 22 years of age, but in my eyes, he would be a day one contributor for this Knicks team. While we may be unsure about the future of players like Derrick Rose, Alec Burks, and Cam Reddish, I can see Agbaji slotting into the second unit and helping the team in all aspects of the game.

Now you may be saying to yourself, why would New York draft another wing? And to rebuttal that, I would say that the Knicks are logjammed at every position besides point guard, which is a position I don’t see the Knicks drafting. So why not take a chance on Agbaji?

In terms of New York’s second-round pick, I wouldn’t hate trading it for a future pick, or even to move up a bit in this year’s first round.

But if the Knicks were to select a prospect, I am looking at St. John’s Julian Champagnie, a very talented three-level scorer who can be sent back and forth to Westchester for development.

The Brooklyn native averaged 19 points per game and shot 41% from the field last year. He is a bucket getter with no fear of shooting the ball and always has the green light. Several impressive college games could just land him on an NBA team in the mid second-round area.

Champagnie certainly has a lot of potential and while I am not saying he will be a day one starter, with the success of this front office’s recent draft picks, he could turn out to be a steal.

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