The Knicks will emphasize defense in their offseason moves and are committed to shipping Carmelo Anthony out of New York, writes Ian Begley of ESPN.com.
If they can find a deal for Anthony, and he agrees to waive his no-trade clause, the Knicks will focus on a defensive-minded small forward as his replacement. Begley says the team is interested in Josh Jackson of Kansas, who is expected to be one of the first players selected in the June 22nd draft. The Knicks hold the sixth spot in our latest Reverse Standings.
Along with its lottery pick, New York will have about $25MM in cap room to pursue free agents if it decides not to re-sign Derrick Rose. Anthony and Rose are both among the league’s worst players at their positions in Defensive Real Plus-Minus stats, which plays a major role in the team’s problems at that end of the court.
Coach Jeff Hornacek said Monday that the organization understands it needs to upgrade on defense.
“I think if you look at our defense this year, we can use some more defensive players,” he said. “[Management] will look at that. [General manager] Steve [Mills] and [president] Phil [Jackson] and those guys will look at whatever can help us out. We know we need some help there.”
The Knicks have been in the bottom third of the NBA’s defensive ratings all season and are currently seventh worst in points allowed at 108.5 per game. Adjusted for pace, they slip to fifth in the league.
Improvement will have to come outside of the current roster, Begley notes, as young front-line players Kristaps Porzingis and Willy Hernangomez haven’t excelled at on-ball defense, although Hornacek said Hernangomez has been improving.
“He gives us different options,” the coach said. “He’s got quicker feet, so maybe we can pull him up on screens more often, that might help us out. Playing [Porzingis] at the 5, maybe with his length, if we keep him back. So we can be better from the inside.”
The Knicks were hoping they had found a defensive anchor last summer when they gave a four-year, $72MM deal to Joakim Noah. But injuries have limited him to 46 games and his poor offensive play led Hornacek to keep him on the court only about 22 minutes per night.
This is just a clever excuse to move on from Melo who can’t defend if you put a gun to his head.
The reality is the Knicks need to get rid of Melo and acquire the best overall talent available in the draft.
They need to establish some core talent before they can fine tune the roster with ‘defensive” players.
Ok armchair gm’s
What’s the best package the Knicks can hope for this summer?
The more I think about it, a sign-and-trade deal for Blake Griffin makes sense for both sides. Granted more pieces would have to be thrown in, but it could be a good deal. For the Knicks another young star to build around in Griffin and rids them of Melo’s contract (maybe only to be replaced with a potentially bad Griffin contract). The Clippers, on the other hand, can then afford to let Reddick walk if his price is too high (even if Melo is an iso-ball guy, his shooting skills are on par with Reddick) and it gives them another go-to scoring option late in games (assuming they keep CP3). Would also give the Clippers a better Big 3 (in my opinion, based on fit) in CP3-Melo-Jordan. I mean the pick-and-roll with CP3 and Jordan with Melo in the corner/elbow would be scary.
How would Griffin b a fit? With Porzingis and Hernangonez? Those r young building blocks at the bigs. Y would u take Griffin to move one to the bench? They need to just trade Melo for a pick. Whether it b a high 2nd or low 1st. This draft class is fairly deep. Get as many picks as possible and build a team. Unless u have curry, lebron, and KD or r the raptors or the spurs. U should b building thru the draft and get ready for when those 4 teams start to get old
Smh Melo really had potential to be the GOAT if he had just cared about playing defense, he would fit in nicely on the Heat.
Bulls trade Butler and all their draft picks every other year until 2022 for Melo, then they sign Chris Bosh, beg DWade to pick up his option, and then sit and wait for Lebron to come to his senses and create a Big4 in Chicago.
Ticket prices will of course have to double, and the rest of the team will be stocked with the guys on rookie deals, D-League players, and 10-day contracts, but oh boy will they have jerseys to sell. And they can probably sign DRose back too after he realizes that no one wants him any more.
You think I am kidding, but this is a window into the GarPax demented mind. They will, of course, regret that to do this they had to pay Rondo $3 million after not picking up his option.