The Boston Celtics stole Mitchell Robinson in free agency, inking him to a three-year, $47.4 million contract (with a player option in the final year). Now, the New York Knicks may be forced to pivot to the trade market to find their backup big, because there aren’t many quality centers left in free agency.
Some of the best centers left in free agency are Kevon Looney, Andre Drummond, and Nick Richards. None of those guys are exactly the type of guys New York should want to back up Karl-Anthony Towns next season. Even Ariel Hukporti is gone. So, it might be time for the Knicks to find a new guy on the trade market.
The question is, how?
Knicks may have to trade for a new backup center
Robinson has been a great backup center for the Knicks for the past few years. He was an integral part of their NBA Championship run this past year, capped off by the biggest offensive rebound of his life in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
When he was in New York, his size and offensive rebounding made him a perfect backup option. Now, the Knicks are going to have to try to replace him this summer (without many actual options available).
Looney is a solid player. He could play decent minutes behind Towns, but he’s nowhere near the same player as Robinson. And it would likely be for a minimum contract.
Drummond is an elite rebounder, but at this stage of his career, he just doesn’t seem like the type of guy who should be playing heavy backup minutes on a title contender.
Then, there’s Richards. Again, like the other two free-agency options, Richards is a fine player. But he doesn’t really excel in any one area. He’s just not the right fit to be a high-level backup.
So, the trade market awaits. And unfortunately for the Knicks, they don’t exactly have a ton of flexibility to work with while looking for a new backup center behind KAT.
One, they don’t have the salary to make many deals work, and two, they don’t have the cap space or draft picks to do so. However, there could still be some options out there if they look in the right places.
But maybe there’s someone out there. Could the Knicks find a way to steal Ryan Kalkbrenner away from the Charlotte Hornets? What about a trade for Jay Huff? Oso Ighodaro?
There aren’t a ton of options, but exploring them would be better than signing one of the bigs left in free agency.
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