Okay, so I probably sound like a bit of a homer with that title at the top as the Knicks have been at the bottom of the Eastern Conference the past couple of years.
But why shouldn’t I be looking
up today as a Knicks fan. The Knicks just offloaded two point guards, one who
can’t play defense and one who can’t score along with Sideshow Bob for a former
MVP
The Knicks receive
Derrick Rose along with Justin Holiday and a 2017 second round pick for Jose
Calderon, Jerian Grant and Robin Lopez. For those of you confused by that trade
yes that means the Knicks gained the best player in a trade as well as a draft
pick without giving up a draft pick of their own.
So
where does this put the Knickerbockers right now?
Jeff Hornacek can now plug
in Derrick Rose at point guard spot with Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps “Godzingis”
Porzingis at the forward spots. The only other players currently under contract
for the 2016-2017 season are Holiday and Kyle O’Quinn.
There is the possibility
that they bring over last year’s second round pick Guillermo “Willy”
Hernangomez to play along his former Sevilla teammate, Porzingis but he doesn’t
seem ready for the jump to the NBA quite yet. Willy didn’t really play well in
Europe last season as he barely saw the court for more than 10 minutes a game.
From last year’s team a
few players that could help this Knicks squad include Langston Galloway, Lance
Thomas and Derrick Williams. The rest of their free agents can all just go,
that means you Sasha Vujacic (Every time Vujacic was on the court I would make
sure the remote wasn’t in reaching distance because I was nervous about what
might happen to my TV if I could grab it).
The Knicks have about $35
million to use right now. Bringing back Williams, Thomas and Galloway likely
takes about $8-10 million off of the table and the team is left with $25-27
million and eight players on the roster. They need starting guys at shooting
guard and center with the hopes of adding a lot of defense around Rose and
Anthony.
In a perfect world
without a salary cap the Knicks would bring DeMar DeRozan and Andre Drummond to
round out their starting five. The problem with that is they can’t afford to
sign the two of them with their remaining cap room and even just one of them leaves
them with pennies for the remainder of the roster.
Bradley Beal is a more
realistic and cheaper option than DeMar DeRozan but having two injury prone
guards might not be the best recipe for success. Having Langston Galloway in
your starting lineup at times the last two years is why the Knicks weren’t
playing past April so we’ll stay away from Beal.
Dwight Howard has been
rumored as a possible target for the Knicks but it just wouldn’t work out well.
He was eaten alive in Los Angeles and it would be even worse in New York. He
needs to stay in smaller markets where he isn’t in the spotlight. Plus he’s
only getting older and adding him with Rose would just be a terrible idea.
There can only be so many injury-prone players on a roster.
The Knicks pretty much
robbed the Chicago Bulls in this trade so it’s pretty apparent that the Bulls
are going the rebuilding route with Jimmy Butler as their main piece. If Phil
Jackson were smart he would start looking at the Bulls roster for help immediately.
Joakim Noah might be the
perfect piece at center for this Knicks team. He helps improve their “Swiss
Cheese Defense” and rebounding which are two things that the Knicks have been
lacking big time. He’s a guy that has that toughness down low that reminds you
of Charles Oakley and is someone that Knicks fans would love to see at the
Garden.
The other Bull that makes
too much sense to possibly let get away is Pau Gasol. Gasol already has two
rings with Phil in LA and would be able to come help out this team right away.
He’d be a great guy for Porzingis to play next to as he is ideally who we’d
love to see Porzingis become with slightly more range.
The last two guys the Knicks should add would
bring help to their backcourt. Stay away from Beal and DeRozan and bring in
Evan Turner and Jamal Crawford. Turner can play both shooting guard and small
forward if the Knicks go small ball and would be a solid starting option at
shooting guard.
The Knicks loved Crawford
in the late 2000s, he just happened to be a product of the giant salary dump
that led to the Knicks gaining Amare Stoudemire and yea just Amare Stoudemire.
If you look at how much
the four of them made this past season it would almost fit into their remaining
cap. Noah and Gasol would probably have to take pay cuts for this to work but
it’s not a giant reach for this to actually happen.
This team wouldn’t be
perfect but it would be a lot better than any team Knicks fans have seen since
the early days of Anthony, Stoudemire and Chandler and who knows how far a team
like this could actually go.
The Knicks already made
one smart move this offseason, who’s to say they don’t keep it up.
