Knicks placing focus on developing young core, adding lottery pick.
New York Knicks President Steve Mills, Head Coach David Fizdale, General manager Scott Perry — Image credit: Charles Wenzelberg
The emphasis on making a big free agent splash in the summer of 2019 is no longer at the front of New York’s rebuild.
Per Marc Berman of the New York Post, the Knicks are not looking for a forced splash into the free agency pool.
Instead, adding a top-five lottery pick, developing their rookies and young players as well as easing Kristaps Porzingis back into action, as larger priorities.
The Knicks are currently $32 million under the salary cap and would not add someone to a max-like contract “unless that player would be a dramatic difference maker to the team’s fortunes,” Berman reports.
New York, currently 9-25 on the season, have lost their last four games. They’re 1-9 in their last 10 games.
The upcoming free agency class projects to include Kevin Durant, Kemba Walker, Kawhi Leonard, and Kyrie Irving.
Then there’s the option for the Knicks to roll over cap space to 2020 or have flexibility maintained to trade for a star like the Pelicans’ Anthony Davis this summer, Berman also writes.
But Mills is knows that while financial resources are important to have to help sign an available NBA superstar, so does having the right culture in place.
“If we don’t make this a place the guys internally feel something good is happening and believe in what we’re doing, that’s not going to be attractive to people who are on the outside,” Mills said. “Our guys have to feel it and then they have to hear about it and see it in how our guys are interacting with us. The plan is that we develop an environment that free agents should want to be here.”
Patience Is The New Priority For The Knicks
The Knicks are still losing games at a high rate, but there’s clearly a plan in place for their future.
Tanking isn’t the plan. That’s even with a 9-25 record which clearly has them on pace for a top-five spot in the NBA Draft Lottery.
One of the reasons the Knicks have had so much trouble attracting superstars over the years has been the unstable environment at the top of their organization. But, that’s no longer the case.
Mills, general manager Scott Perry, and head coach David Fizdale appear hell-bent on changing the culture around the team and focusing on team development. They have developmental pieces on the current roster in Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, and Allonzo Trier. Fizdale is also figuring out what he has in former lottery picks Frank Ntilikina and Emmanuel Mudiay.
A 9-25 record is what it is but, despite the losing, the Knicks have seen potential in their present core. And that’s where Mills showing patience in the process is impressive. He knows it doesn’t matter how much they get under the salary cap, money won’t be all that attracts top free agents to Madison Square Garden. There’s an awareness, within the team’s upper management, which hasn’t been there in years. Arguably, decades.
Shifting the focus to developing the current core sends a message to fans and the league the Knicks are serious this time about the bigger picture. It’s no longer about the quick-fix or what will dominate the back page of newspapers.
Maybe this change in direction will cost the Knicks Kevin Durant or Kemba Walker. It may also bring them closer to the bargaining table.
