The Knicks have had a glaring hole at point guard the past few seasons and the team may look to correct the deficiency by acquiring a player like Darren Collison from the Kings if it’s unable to land a bigger name in free agency, Ian Begley of ESPN.com relays. The New York front office began discussing the possibility of working the trade market late in the season, Begley notes, and members of the Knicks organization are said to be fond of Collison. New York had also reportedly had trade talks with the Hawks regarding Jeff Teague prior to the trade deadline and there have been recent discussions within the organization about revisiting that pursuit this offseason, Begley notes.
It’s unclear if the Knicks have the assets required to land Collison or Teague, Begley notes, but New York will certainly have enough cap flexibility this summer to absorb either contract. The Knicks will have at least $18MM in available space to use and that number could surge to approximately $30MM if Arron Afflalo ($8MM) and Derrick Williams ($4,598,000) decline their respective player options, the scribe adds. Collison is set to earn $5,229,454 next season, the final year of his current deal. The Knicks could conceivably add Collison and still have room to ink a max salary free agent, Begley notes.
Collison appeared in 74 games for the Kings this season, including 15 as a starter, though he did see increased time as a shooting guard as the season wore on due to the presence of Rajon Rondo. His averages on the year were 14.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists to accompany a shooting line of .486/.401/.858. The 28-year-old would certainly be a clear upgrade over the team’s current crop of playmakers: Jose Calderon, Jerian Grant and Langston Galloway. The wild card in New York’s future backcourt plans is Tony Wroten, who has declared his intent to be the team’s starter in 2016/17 as he makes his way back from a torn right ACL.
I like collison, should be a starting guard, not a bad choice at all.
I’ve been saying this for a while. Collison makes a lot of sense for us since there won’t be a lot of point guards available in free agency and he shouldn’t cost us that much.
The Knicks still don’t have anything of value. No team is taking Calderon without more coming back so the only “value” the Knicks can send back (that is reasonable, so no Melo, Porzingas, Lopez) would be Galloway, Thomas, Grant or Early but that’s hardly equal in value to Collison.