Free agency has not even begun, so this list is by no means set in stone, but as we sit here this evening, there appear to be four teams with a realistic shot of landing Kyrie Irving this summer – the Celtics, Knicks, Nets, and Lakers. For what it’s worth, Irving’s head coach from high school, Kevin Boyle, believes that Irving will sign with the Knicks, per Ian Begley of SportsNet New York.
“I think there’s a good chance in my opinion that Kyrie ends up here [in New York],” Boyle said. “In my gut, I would think that would work best for him and I would think that [the Knicks] have a really strong chance of that happening.”
Boyle made it clear that he was speaking as a fan and not someone who knows what Irving’s plans are this offseason, but this a man who spent time with Irving on the basketball floor and may have a better idea of what he’s thinking than some other pundits.
Irving will likely be one of the top candidates on the free agent market this summer after being named All-NBA Second Team earlier today, despite reports of some teams having second thoughts about adding him to their roster.
There’s more news from the Knicks:
- In his conversation with Begley, Boyle adds that R.J. Barrett, the presumptive pick of the Knicks with the No. 3 overall pick in this summer’s draft and another player that Boyle coached in high school, should be in the conversation with Zion Williamson as the best NBA prospect in the 2019 Draft.
- With the Lakers quickly overtaking the Knicks as the most dysfunctional franchise in the NBA, the Knicks have an opportunity to entice free agents without having to overcome the Lakers’ mystique, opines Frank Isola of The Athletic.
- In more news from Ian Begley of SNY (Twitter link), the Knicks are among a large contingent of teams attending a joint Pro Day for Arkansas’ Daniel Gafford and North Carolina’s Cameron Johnson in Miami on June 7. Johnson is currently the No. 22-ranked prospect by ESPN, while Gafford comes in at No. 38.
Hey, Coach Boyle – speaking for many Celtics fans – from your lips to God’s ear.
Yes. I Hope Irving is packing for NY now. Then he’ll demand a trade next offseason.
If I had to trade AD, would do a Knicks deal for Knox, #3, Ntilikina, Robinson, Thomas, and a Mavs pick for AD and they find a team to take Solomon Hill.
I may hold onto Jrue tho. Don’t need to tank you’d already receive two premium players in 1 draft.
Jrue, ET, RJ, Zion, Robinson. Not a bad squad to grow with Knox and Ntilikina of the bench. If Ntilikina becomes a better defensive reserve hes at least worth being the 7th or 8th guy off a bench. He is terrible offensively and hasnt shown that predraft plus defensive attribute yet.
Lots of defensive potential there
With Zion and Robinson on the same team with a uptempo offense would be a lot of fun to watch. Both physical freaks of nature.
Knicks likely won’t do it before July 1, because it would mean losing the 2 max FA slots. If, after July 1, the Knicks don’t get the max FAs, then I don’t see them doing it all. But, after July 1, if the max guys are on board, then I could see some combination of the remaining 7 guys being traded for AD (with picks): Barrett (signed), Frank, DSJ, Dotson, Knox, Robinson and Trier.
I believed since they drew #3 (Barrett) on draft night and the Pels got Zion, that the Knicks could put together the best package for AD. I just don’t know if they’ll be motivated based on the rest of their roster.
Best package? Lol you sure about that….the only valuable assets they have is that #3 pick. Ntilianka is a bust beyond belief, from how knox played he has a very long way to go and robinson even more. This is as delusional as its gets. A more realistic team ad will be traded being the knicks is a more fair statement. Lakers have best package but i dont believe ad winds up there because of Gail benson.
The Mavs picks could be valuable. I dont think DSJ, Trier, Dotson need to be involved, maybe to dump money, but would rather take the picks.
Ball and Ingram are always injured. Kuzma is the only LT piece. And 4 doesnt get them RJ. RJ could end up as the best player in the draft.
On asset value, I’m fairly sure as to the Celtics, but completely sure as to the Lakers. You would be too if you understood anything about how a player’s asset value is usually determined. It’s forward looking only. It includes objective factors (salary, years in the league, years of remaining control, etc.) and some subjective ones, which is were metrics come in to tame and confirm optics. Look at the metrics and educate yourself as to what NBA executive are likely thinking about your players. Basic ones: w/s, bpm, vorp, etc. If you think your opinion of who’s “better” matters more than those numbers, then you’re beyond delusional. In short, best asset? The Laker’s best asset is #4. In this draft, that’s light years behind #3. Next best asset? Well, Robinson is a better asset than any young Laker player. Remote picks? Knicks can provide better ones. Griffin is going to be judged on what he nets from this trade after 2-3 years, not next year.
Benson will follow Griffin’s lead. She’s got a fragile fanbase she needs engaged, she’s not going to prevent the best deal from going through. If any team is going to be blacklisted, then it’s the Knicks. Griffin applied for and didn’t get the GM job and it wasn’t cordial. But I think Griffin’s desire to be successful is greater than his desire to stick it to Steve Mills.
Sorry but robinson isnt that good offensively, and doesnt project to be more than deandre jordan in terms of overall skill. Ingram is already close to where the greek freak was in term of his development. You have already seen the game altering talent that giannis is with his length. Ingram was averaging more points than any of the players you mentioned and averaged over 20 ppg shooting a high percentage. You guys just love to hate on the lakers because we have the 2nd most championships and we play on the west coast. Im guessing your just another bias east coast fan who doesnt even watch the lakers. Like i said before rj barrett is a nice player but not worth the rest of the garbage new york will try to pawn off on them. Honestly tatum and brown even have a higher upside than anything that the knicks could offer. Theres a reason knicks still select in lottery for the last 20 years…
So, you’re saying NBA executives doesn’t value the 2019 #3 pick MUCH higher than 2019 #4 pick, or are saying you disagree with that? (The latter doesn’t matter for purposes of what trade package is going to be accepted.)
Are you saying that the NBA executives don’t value players on metrics, or you think they’re foolish to do so? – Foolish or not, this is what they look at. Ingram, even with all those points per game, is Minus (offense)/Minus (defense) player. Robinson’s win shares actually led his draft class.
What you failing to understand is the limited value of a big with no outside game. Sure every team need a rim protector but you also need someone to stretch the court. You also fail to mention that he played 20 minutes a game which is fairly small and played majority of games in a watered down conference.
what part of mindless didn’t give it away?
link to basketball-reference.com
In case you want to learn. You’ll see that Ball is a good defender, but otherwise, the Laker young guys are minus guys. Other than Robinson, so are the Knick young players, but they have more time on their RSC’s to improve.
You haven’t seen Robinson play, have you.
I’m not sure Ingram is even very tradable right now. I’m not going for the guy with Deep Venous Thrombosis.
You do realize dvt is cured with surgery and chance of recurrence are less than 10% do research before you write non sense…
“Cured”.
So I looked at the first thing that popped up on google for “DVT recurrance”, saw what you likely saw, and apparently did not understand. “only 10% of VTE recurrences were rated as provoked” means the other 90% of recurrances were UNprovoked (not explained by risk factors), not that they didn’t recur.
For the third link, from medline, we find “The risk of recurrence after a first episode of VTE is 5%–7% per year, and it is more than 50 times higher than in patients without previous VTE.” There is also talk of mortality. So thats about one minute of research and a bunch of typing.
IDK about Ingram medically precisely, but he always seemed kind of flimsy, albeit talented. And he might be on anticoagulents now. Nobody has had a final say on him and probably won’t, because it’s about increased odds not increased certainty, and this hinders trading him. GMs will check in on him midseason.
At any rate the Knicks have several building blocks to offer, better future picks, and are in the EC.
You act as if Deandre Jordan is a scrub instead of a former all-star, 3x all-nba and rebound leader. You know defense and easy dunks count too? Mitchell went from HS to the NBA. He’s got double double with 2-3 blocks a game easy, and he’s under contract for 3/$6 mil.
You comparing Ingram, who’s only under contract for 1 more year, is on his way to being Giannis is a joke. He’s nowhere near the level of size, skill, durability and physicality as Giannis.
And you keep mentioning what the Celtics have but you’re not taking into consideration that it’s been indicated where AD would likely sign an extension. Griffin has to likely operate with that consideration in mind. It’s been indicated AD would go to Boston IF Kyrie were there. That appears as if it’s not going to happen so stop mentioning them as a trade partner. It doesn’t matter who they have.
It will be interesting to see how the Lakers and Knicks will fill out the rest of the team as each team would literally have to trade every single player (except for LBJ) just to match AD’s $25 mil.
It would be LBJ and AD and no one else left on the roster. And I hope they don’t bring in a bunch of odds and ends like last year. It’s not easy to form a 50 win team with just 2 guys and whatever you can sign via FA.
Knicks package is by far better. The prospect of having Zion and RJ united in the NBA, plus the Mavs unprotected pick along with some young bench players is better than the dysfunction you’d deal with coming back from the Lakers. Won’t get RJ from them, either. And all the lakers players are close to coming out of their rookie contracts.
Guys why all the Knicks fans talk like the Dallas picks are great assets, from next year they are in the playoffs… so their picks don’t count for nothing, Dallas fleeced you getting KP6!!!
There’s no reason to expect the Mavs to be a playoff team. Even with KP (who knows if he’ll be 100%) and whatever they might do this offseason, there’s no guarantee they can beat out GSW, Houston, OKC, Portland, Denver, Utah, Spurs, Clippers and possibly even Minnesota (new front office personnel), Kings (+12 win increase from previous year) or even the Pelicans might be a better team despite losing AD. Not saying the Pelicans, Kings and Minnesota are going to be formidable playoff contenders but they might be in the 40 win area which is more than what the Mavs had last year.
Also, the Lakers showed us that the Mavs don’t have to be a bottom feeder team to jump into that top 3 position next draft. Laker’s jumped 8 spots from 11 to 3. That Mavs pick might be a top 3-4 slot.
All of the disfunction is made up by the media to stir the pot. Obviously you have bought in.
I need to really look at what the Pelican’s need vs what each team is offering but I think you’re wrong in saying all the Knicks have to offer is the #3 (which in and of itself might be a difference maker). The Knicks have Knox and Mitchell.
Knox was the 3rd youngest player in the NBA this year and will only be 20 at the start of next season. He averaged a respectable 13pts, 5 rebounds and shot 34% from 3. His overall FG% was horrible but that can improve easily through more practice and better shot selection.
Robinson was a beast his rookie season. He’s not going to stretch the floor and he’s limited in the number of things he does but what he DOES do he’s amazing at. Coming off the bench and averaging 7pts, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks. 3 blocks!!! Per 36 minutes that’s 13 pts, 11 reb and 4 blocks a game. He skipped college and is still raw but with some coaching and experience he’ll learn how to avoid fouls and be a more effective defender and post player. He has a ceiling of a D’Andre Jordan/Andrew Drummond and to have him on below market contract is amazing. He can anchor the Pelicans defense and handle the more physical opponents that Zion might not be ready for.
Also, the Pelican’s are likely 2 or 3 years away from being a competitive team. They would likely prefer players a few years from free agency.
Mitchell is under contract for 3 years under $2 mil per. Knox is under contract for 3 years about $5 mil per.
Lonzo is under contract for 2 years at $20 mil. Ingram has 1 year left at $8 mil. Kouzma and Hart each have 2 years for relatively little money ($3 mil or less per).
What if the Pelicans don’t want to be in a position so soon to offer extensions for Lonzo and Ingram? They each might be able to demand $10-$15 per. They can also become RFA’s and sign offer sheets that the Pelican’s would have to match or let them walk for nothing in return. Not a good situation to be in, especially if they feel those players don’t want to stay in NO. That’s kind of what AD did. Took the money from the extension then demanded a trade.
We can look at talent and judge the Lakers vs Knicks offer but it has to be done in terms of the context of Griffin’s roster make-up. Also, neither team has any big money players to match AD’s salary. They would literally have to include every player on their roster or find some creative trade partners that have expiring or not fully guaranteed contracts to use for salary matching purposes.
If I were Griffin I wouldn’t want to take on a bunch of useless player contracts just to salary match Davis’ $25 mil.
pels would look very nice if they took the celtics young guns + zion + holiday
I’m a Knicks fan, but keep dreaming, Isola, if you think the Lakers are overtaking the Knicks in dysfunction. Even if that were true, the Lakers still have LeBron, which gives them a leg-up on any free agents.
Lakers should trade LeBron for Davis.
Sounds like a worried warrior fan to me, right?
That makes zero sense and I will assume you’re joking.
Ftr, any Laker fan who has a problem with LBJ is a fool. This is the ONE free agent who chose to take on the resposibility of trying to drag the Lakers back into relevance. Every single star has choose another team in the last 5-6 seasons.
While LBJ bring an entourage, he is FAR, FAR, FAR for the reason of the dysfunction and this is coming from someone who is more of an Irving fan who simply respects what LBJ has done in his career. The idea that he’s asked questions by the front office and then gets reemed because he answers with his own opinion is absurd. Magic got his coach fired. You don’t think Jordan expressed his opinions to the front office during his playing days. Give me a break.