Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, and Kyrie Irving are the top candidates at the forefront for the Knicks to pursue this offseason.
Free Agency
According to Adam Zagoria, the Knicks are favorites to land both Kyrie and LeBron James. This may seem like a long shot but with the chaos that’s surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers, this is something to keep in mind. Magic Johnson resigns without notice. Tyronn Lue stops discussions about becoming the next Head Coach. Kyrie has also been linked to the Knicks for the past couple of seasons ever since he wanted out of Cleveland. They were on his short list to be traded to.
Trade/Draft Lottery
Another interesting scenario for the Knicks is whether or not to trade for Anthony Davis. This depends on where they land in the draft lottery. If they get the #1 pick they’re almost certainly taking Zion depending who’s drafting first. If they get the #2 pick, would they consider Ja Morant or RJ Barrett? Or maybe they package a deal with Kevin Knox and the 1st round pick to the New Orleans Pelicans for Davis? Ian Begley of SNY stated that the Pelicans have gathered intel on Knox even though this is a normal practice for front offices. Best case scenario is they land two max free agents and Zion. The worst case would be dropping past the 2nd overall pick and settling for level B players just to sign although the front office has stated they will not do that.
Summary
The NBA free agency period is basically waiting for the first domino to fall. This year it’s going to be the lottery. Depending on where the Knicks end up will determine if they trade away or draft a player to develop. The other dominoes to fall would be the looming free agency of the superstars.
The Knicks are in a position that they haven’t been in quite some time. They can actually be relevant in the Association next year and that’s something the league should be hoping for.
Photo: NBCsports.com/bay area
