1:29pm: Within their full story on the Porzingis situation, Wojnarowski, Shelburne, Lowe, and Ian Begley suggest that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Knicks could explore a trade involving Porzingis if tensions between the two sides continue to increase. Teams around the league have been keeping an eye on the situation to see if there might be a pathway to acquire Porzingis, front office sources tell ESPN.
1:17pm: Knicks big man Kristaps Porzingis met with team management today and expressed concern about the direction of the franchise, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Ramona Shelburne, and Zach Lowe (Twitter links).
Per ESPN, Porzingis – a restricted free agent this summer – would like to play for a winner in New York, but is worried about all the losing and the direction of the team, as well as his future role. The 23-year-old also isn’t sure that the 10-40 Knicks are developing a culture that will “enable sustainable organizational success,” Woj writes.
[RELATED: 2018/19 NBA Reverse Standings]
Because he’ll be a restricted free agent this offseason, Porzingis has limited flexibility to jump ship anytime soon. If he decides he doesn’t want to be a Knick, he could accept his qualifying offer this summer and become an unrestricted free agent in 2020, but settling for a one-year, $4.5MM deal would be a big risk for a 7’3″ player coming off an ACL tear.
His other option would be to sign a shorter-term offer sheet with a rival team — the Knicks would match it, but Porzingis would have the opportunity to get back on the open market sooner than if he signs a four- or five-year contract with New York.
The Knicks, of course, will do their best to ease Porzingis’ concerns and then negotiate with him directly in free agency. They’ll have the advantage of being able to offer him an extra year (five instead of four) and larger raises (8% instead of 5%). The former No. 4 overall pick is expected to be in line for a maximum salary contract, despite missing most or all of the 2018/19 season.
The timing of today’s report is interesting, since Porzingis’ name has been floated this week in trade speculation as the Knicks emerge as a possible suitor for Anthony Davis. This is just my speculation, but Porzingis’ frustration may stem in part from uncertainty about whether the franchise intends to dangle him as trade bait in a potential offer for Davis.
good riddance to this diva who has done nothing to deserve the organizational pull he wrongly believes he has
Kanter, Lee, and Porzingis for AD
Who really needs to be traded even more than all the players on bad contracts with the Knicks, is Dolan. Arguably the worst sports franchise owner to ever exist. He’s what’s really hurting the Knicks
For what it worth too, nobody can hate on what KP is feeling either. Who likes a consistently losing franchise? The idea of any competitive sport is to win. The Knicks haven’t done that in a long time. I get this year the idea is to tank to get another top pick in the draft. But, here’s the thing in basketball, you can be the worst team in the NBA and you still aren’t guaranteed the 1st overall pick. It’s a lottery. Yes you have better odds but no guarantee.
And this article doesn’t specify what KP talked about with the front office. Maybe he wants to make sure that after this year they are gonna do everything they can to win and win big. All the Knicks have done in recent years is make bad trades and even worse free agent signings. If they want to win they need to really step it up and that’s not gonna happen with the roster they have now
Other than hiring Mills, Dolan can’t be blamed for the current clusterf!!k. He has had declining interest in the sport teams since the first spin off and spends almost all of his time on the other side of the business. This regime was the first to be handed cap space and all their draft picks and generic corporate ownership.
Porzingis must be psychic…..
Porzingis expresses concern about Knicks’ direction? So he has eyes and sense, the newsworthy part of this is…? … he said something about it in a private team meeting. That of course was leaked because…. Knicks.
How brain dead would he have to be to look at the Knicks with optimism? He’s been around there long enough to understand there isn’t a new, winning culture taking hold. They are an as much of an embarrassment to premier professional franchises as they have ever been. But sure, hope that AD can be fooled into buying in. The Knicks will have to send at least a couple first round picks, that will be in the lottery after AD ditches them or they should trade him next year. Which all sounds moronic, so because it’s the Knicks there is a good chance it could happen.
And yet they’ve sold out their arena since forever.
What’s the owners motivation besides counting Benjamins?
KP should have concerns over the current regime. Most Knick fans do.
But KP isn’t taking a Q/O and, beyond that, the Knicks have no reason to care if he wants to take less money in a 3/1 offer sheet with smaller raises vs a 4/1 with larger ones. One less year of an albatross contract if he keeps getting hurt. Longer term, no NBA player has ever left the Knicks by choice. Knick fans have plenty to worry about, but a kid from Latvia being the first in 3 years isn’t one of them.