Ian Begley ESPN
A few Knicks notes as we head into the draft:
Tough to trade up: If the Knicks – or any other team – wants to move up in the draft, it will cost significant assets. So it’s hard to see New York executing a deal to move into the top five. They could include future first-round picks in a trade, but team president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry have placed a high value on those future firsts and don’t seem inclined to include any in a trade. Per ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, the Knicks are one of several teams to talk to Memphis about trading involving its No. 4 pick. The Grizzlies have insisted that any team that acquires its pick take back Chandler Parsons, and the nearly $50 million he’s owed over the next two seasons. The Knicks have told some agents that they are strongly opposed to signing any free agents to long-term contracts this summer. The idea, it appears, is to preserve cap space for 2019. So it wouldn’t make sense for the Knicks to take back Parsons in a trade because his contract would clog their cap for the summer of 2019.
Kyrie, Kawhi: The Knicks hope to have enough space to pursue a top free agent that summer. It’s worth noting that Kyrie Irving will likely be a free agent in 2019. Irving had the Knicks on his list of trade destinations last summer. It's impossible, of course, to talk with any certainty about potential landing spots for Irving more than 12 months away from his free agency. Plenty can change between now and next July. But people around the league expect New York to remain a desired destination for Irving if he hits free agency next summer. And if Irving is interested in New York, you can be sure that the Knicks will be interested in Irving.
Depending on how things unfold over the next few weeks, Kawhi Leonard could be available in free agency in the summer of 2019 as well. Leonard’s advisers view New York as a potential destination for the Spurs star. So it would make sense for the Knicks to try to draw Leonard as a free agent rather than try to trade for him; any trade for Leonard would almost certainly have to include Kristaps Porzingis heading to San Antonio.
What does NYK do at 9? Assuming the Knicks don’t trade up or back, they should have plenty of players to choose from at nine. The big question, of course, is how far Michael Porter Jr. falls. If he’s available at 9, the Knicks will have to think long and hard about the risk/reward of taking Porter Jr. If Wendell Carter Jr. somehow falls to 9, I’d expect the Knicks to take him even with Porter on the board. But let’s assume that neither player is there. It could come down to Kentucky’s Kevin Knox, Villanova’s Mikal Bridges, Michigan State’s Miles Bridges and Miami’s Lonnie Walker. I’ve heard that Knox, Mikal Bridges and Walker all have had support within the Knicks front office in the weeks leading up to the draft. If I had to guess at the time of this post (9:30 AM on Thursday), the Knicks would go with Knox in this scenario.
Due diligence: It’s hard to overstate just how important this draft is for the Knicks’ rebuild. It’s also the first draft for the executive duo of Mills and Perry. From an outside view, it seems as if Mills, Perry and the Knicks front office has done its homework for this draft. Like all NBA teams, the Knicks have either hosted – or traveled to – workouts for many potential picks. They’ve had representatives – assistant general manager Gerald Madkins, who overseas the scouting department, and others - at hundreds of college and international games throughout the season. This is what competent NBA teams do. This Knicks regime also seemingly hasn’t had to fight the same perception issues that New York dealt with during Phil Jackson’s presidency. Some young players were turned off by what they’d heard about the Knicks in recent seasons; one of the top point guards in the 2017 NBA Draft was dead set against working out for New York because he didn’t want to run the triangle offense, per sources. This Knicks contingent doesn’t seem to be handcuffed by those same negative perceptions – at least not to the same degree as the past regime.
