The Knicks stayed put at No. 9 after Tuesday night’s lottery, but general manager Scott Perry isn’t ruling out the possibility of landing a potential star in next month’s draft. Despite not having a top-three pick, Perry pointed to last year’s 13th overall pick Donovan Mitchell as a prime example of how impact players can slip into the second half of the lottery, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post.
“You never know. You look around and Utah had good success where they were,” Perry said. “A lot of times in the draft everybody has to be careful. A lot of it is fit, too. Some guys may get drafted in a particular place where it’s not a great fit initially or it is a great fit. … I think that’s the important thing for us — finding the personality whose game is the closest fit to how we want to play and what we want to be.”
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- Mikal Bridges and Miles Bridges have frequently been mentioned as potential Knicks targets, given the team’s need for a wing. As Berman relays, Perry offered his first comments on the pair of Bridges on Tuesday: “We’re going to dive into both of those guys as we move forward. Both are very good basketball players who put themselves in position to be in consideration by a number of teams in the lottery. I can’t wait to meet both of those young guys to really get a feel for who they are and how they may and may not fit.”
- Perry said the Knicks were happy to get a new head coach in place before the 2018 draft combine got underway. David Fizdale will participate in the club’s interviews with prospects in Chicago this week. “I think it’s extremely important to have the coach in house because the more we spend time with David and the more he gets a chance to spend with these guys we bring in to work out and see what players may or may not fit with how he’s going to coach the team and his personality,” Perry said, according to Berman.
- Berman reported on Tuesday night that the Knicks would only seriously consider drafting a point guard at No. 9 if they felt their target was an “unquestioned upgrade” over their current options. Perry essentially confirmed as much when asked directly about the possibility, per Berman: “It would only make sense if you feel that guard is far and away better than what you have on the roster. And we haven’t been able to make that determination yet.”
- Perry said the Knicks will have a better idea of Kristaps Porzingis‘ return date by August, writes Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Meanwhile, Berman hears from multiple sources that Porzingis has actually been doing much of his ACL rehab work with Real Madrid in Spain, rather than in his home country of Latvia as previously believed.
The whole draft lottery is an illogical system when it Comes to drafting young talent. No reason The Cavs are in the ECFinals and the Knicks didn’t make the playoffs but the Cavs are picking one spot ahead of the Knicks. Dumb. Makes ZERO Sense!
It was a traded pick
Uh because they have the nets pick through trades lol
If you have any NBA knowledge you should know better than this comment
You’re looking for Yahoo Sports.
Thus, the result of a traded future asset for a current concern/opportunity…
Knicks should move Porzingis for Kawhi. San Antonio can afford to wait for him to come back not the Knicks.
Kawhi and Spurs 1st for KP and Lee
That is so dumb for the Knicks. Even though Kawhi is better, Porzingis has loads of potential. And there is no reason for the Knicks to get older. And what are you saying with the Spurs can wait for KP’s return but the Knicks can’t? The Spurs are the ones competing for the playoffs. There are so many holes in this comment. What a poor troll job.
If the Spurs took Noah, I’d consider it. Depends on how much cap space the Knicks can open up. Kawhi plus a PG13? Now you have something.
Spurs would have to take Noah for the Knicks to make it work. Or a combination of salaries to bridge that gap.
Stop with all these 2K logic ideas.
I’d be pretty surprised if Cleveland or Chicago dont take Mikal Bridges ahead of the Knicks. That’s who they should want though. Then probably Miles Bridges, Kevin Knox, or SGA…
If Mikal goes ahead of the Knicks, someone dropped. Either Young, Jackson or Bamba. You’d be hard pressed not to take any of them. Ntilikina isn’t enough of a reason to not take Young.
I have a feeling certain wings/guards will have their stock rise before the draft, and certain bigs will have their stock drop a bit
Like prior Knick GMs, and like his boss, Mills, Perry needs to learn the value of silence. What could possibly be gained by publicly confirming (to an idiot like Berman no less) that the Knicks are unlikely to pick a PG at #9? Every other team knows who’s on the Knicks’ roster and what their needs are. The only thing they don’t know (unless the front office is dumb enough to tell them) is what’s on their minds. They can guess, and they can read stories of sources saying this or that, but they really don’t know. Maybe it’s a NYC thing. Although the Giants’ GM never made a statement on their pick despite being continuously peppered to confirm that they weren’t looking at taking a QB with the pick. Thus, we (and the Browns) still don’t really know if they would have picked a QB if the Browns took Barkley 1st overall.