After a couple bad trades and a self admitted “project gone awry”, Knicks president Phil Jackson is faced with the task of rebuilding a team that has steadily gone downhill. With currently the worst record in the NBA, it’s assumed the Knicks are in full tank mode and will likely end up with a top-3 pick in the upcoming draft. Jackson has also spent a lot of time lately at college games scouting potential players. Many Knicks fans have their sights set on Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns to save the team but it turns out despite all those facts, Jackson is actually focused on free agency.
via ESPN:
“We know what the first-round pick is going to mean for us, but we also know we’re going to build our team with free agents,” Jackson said Thursday morning after the Knicks held shootaround at UCLA before their 101-94 win against the Los Angeles Lakers. “A hundred and ninety players or so are going to be free agents. Not half the league, but like a third of the league is going to be free agents. So that’s where our priority stands.”
The Knicks are expected to have at least $25 million to spend in free agency this summer.
“What we’re trying to do is look at what advancement there can be in the short-term,” he said. “How quickly we can recover and get back in the hunt?”
Those statements coupled with the Knicks history scares me because it could mean the reports are true and Knicks could trade their draft pick if the opportunity presents itself. The Knicks are far from a “win now” position; landing a star player in free agency wouldn’t suddenly turn things around for them. The team literally needs to be rebuilt with several new players and a system that actually works for them.
