4. The Knicks need to unload some bad contracts
After a shocking breakout year in 2020-21, the Knicks made some great decisions, namely finding Grimes and Deuce McBride in the draft, as well as trading for Reddish during the season.
Unfortunately, with the good comes the bad, and that bad included giving some veterans contracts that simply didn’t make sense for the team at the time, and still make very little sense for the future of the team.
Fans should be able to live with the Evan Fournier contract, as he was consistent for the majority of the season, and broke the Knicks’ record for most 3-pointers in a season, but the contracts handed to Nerlens Noel and Alec Burks were almost ridiculous.
Burks did contribute to the team this past season, although it was in a role, that through no fault of his own infuriated fans, but given his limitations and previous health issues, there’s no way that Noel should have been brought back on a multi-year contract.
It won’t be easy to get out from some of these, but with the draft capital for the next few years that Leon Rose has at his disposal, he needs to make some moves to get away from these players, especially when you consider the playing time that a healthy Noel and Burks will take away from Jericho Sims and some of the Knicks’ young wings.