Knicks president Phil Jackson is focused on 2015/16, and he isn’t dwelling on next offseason’s potential crop of free agents, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com writes. “It’s too much between then and now — or now and then — that goes along,” Jackson said. “There’s just a whole season to go through. Teams develop rapidly. I’ve seen multiple teams in the NBA over the years [that] had this chemistry that just brings it together. That’s what we’re looking for, to find guys that have the chemistry that activates them as players and their team effort together.”
“So we’re not going to hold anything out about this year, next year,” Jackson continued. “We’re going to continue to try to bring the best talent here to Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks. So that kind of goes unstated.”
Here’s more from New York:
- Coach Derek Fisher doesn’t believe that Carmelo Anthony is disgruntled with the current state of the Knicks, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com relays (via Twitter). Fisher told Begley regarding ‘Melo’s feelings, “I think he actually enjoys and likes working with these guys.“
- Anthony, who underwent surgery on his left knee back in February, will enter training camp without any medical restrictions, Begley writes in a separate piece. “Medically, he will be fine,” Fisher said. “I think we will still gauge how much we want to put him under in terms of workload and stress in training camp and in the preseason. But we don’t have to artificially hold him back from working hard. We just have to kind of gauge how it is responding to how hard we plan to work in training camp, and let’s be smart along the way.“
- DaJuan Summers‘ one-year deal with the team is non-guaranteed and for the league minimum, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
- The minimum salary deals that Darion Atkins and Wesley Saunders signed are partially guaranteed for $75K, while Travis Trice‘s minimum salary pact includes a partial guarantee of $50K, Pincus confirms (Twitter link).
- You can view the Knicks’ full preseason roster here.