There’s optimism surrounding the Knicks’ extension talks with Immanuel Quickley, writes Fred Katz of The Athletic. The 24-year-old guard is eligible to sign an extension until October 23, which is the day before the regular season begins. If no deal is reached, he will become a restricted free agent next summer.
Sources tell Katz that Knicks management wants to get a long-term deal done with Quickley, who was one of the team’s top scorers at 14.9 PPG last season while finishing second in the Sixth Man of the Year voting. He’s viewed as a vital part of an organization that’s on the rise after reaching the second round of the playoffs.
New York doesn’t project to have cap room next summer, Katz adds, so an extension for Quickley won’t affect the team’s free agency plans. Coach Tom Thibodeau appeared to lose faith in Quickley during the playoffs, cutting his minutes during the second-round series with Miami, but Katz doesn’t believe that will be a long-term concern.
Katz also points out that the Knicks were in a similar position last summer with RJ Barrett, who had to wait until September before receiving his four-year, $107MM extension.
There’s more from New York, all courtesy of Katz:
- Barrett will arrive in training camp in a much different position than he did a year ago. Katz notes that Barrett was concerned with avoiding injury last summer while he waited for his new contract, so he didn’t play much pickup basketball and got off to a slow start. He spent this offseason as one of Canada’s best players on its way to winning a bronze medal at the World Cup. Katz observes that Barrett showed an ability in that tournament to make the right read when confronted by multiple defenders, which might happen often given the Knicks’ lack of outside shooting.
- The Knicks and Evan Fournier appear stuck with each other even though he said in an offseason interview that it would be a “disaster” if the team didn’t move him this summer. Fournier’s $18.9MM expiring contract could still be valuable in a trade, so Katz expects him to remain on the roster even if he hardly ever plays.
- New York traded away Obi Toppin, who averaged 15.7 minutes per game last season, and brought in Donte DiVincenzo, who played 26.3 minutes per game with the Warriors, so someone will have their playing time reduced as long as everyone is healthy. Katz points out that Barrett and Quentin Grimes both saw fewer minutes after Josh Hart was acquired in February and speculates that either DiVincenzo could play less than he did with Golden State or he may take away minutes from Quickley.
What the Knicks are doing to Fournier is pretty messed up. I understand that he is overpaid , but he has 0 off court issues and he still has game.
There’s no team that wants to trade for him right now
I am not talking about a trade. Just simply him playing. There have been some games where they were depleted and he didn’t play. They also could have used his scoring against Miami.
Thibs wants no part of Fournier. It’s over
Honestly, just make a trade at this point. The Knicks shouldn’t be waiting around for the perfect move to materialize, because unless they think they can get Harden for a bag of chips AND he will suddenly experience a miraculous attitude change, there won’t be one. Siakam is Julius Randle with slightly worse defense and slightly better playoff performance. DeRozan is a playoff dropper, hardcore, and they already have Randle. LaVine doesn’t want to play for them and is kind of overrated anyway. Lillard won’t fit unless they trade Brunson, which is a bad choice imo.
Nobody else is really available. Maybe PG13? And they’d have to give up one of Randle or Brunson to make that swap work. Bojan Bogdanovic? Good player, but would he fit the roster, or be a big upgrade? Dejounte Murray is locked up in Atlanta. OG Annunoby, maybe? But the Raptors have shown zero willingness to trade their players. KAT? Doesn’t fit the roster, also a playoff dropper, bad at defense, which Thibs prizes. Jerami Grant is massively overpaid. Kuzma maybe fits, but he’s not much of an upgrade anywhere. Ingram, maybe. But NO would probably try to trade Zion first if they want to blow things up. And pretty much no one else is either available or a fit. Or both.
Bring in a quality roleplayer for Fournier and some seconds, or a protected first, or one of the young guys on the fringes of the rotation like McBride (probably too talented for that, but similar). RoCo is disgruntled in LA and could be viable for the Knicks as a backup frontcourt fit and spacer, for example.
Really !!!!! All that and saying nothing.
We don’t care what the uninformed think or want……
The rebuild is still going on. Try and catch up or STFU
Someone didn’t read and got offended that I had a different opinion, I see.
I said the same thing, that trying to swing a big trade RIGHT NOW is the wrong move. Trying to make a splash when the young guys are still developing and the available options have problems isn’t a good choice. Keep building, make a play for a big FA or trade acquisition NEXT YEAR. Trading Fournier for someone useful but not bank-breaking is part of that.
Learn to read, Al. You do this all the time.
Game? What game? He’s a matador on defense. Can’t dribble. Can’t pass. He’s had better offensive years with other teams and they didn’t bring him back. That alone should’ve had the Knicks scratching their heads before they signed him.
There are definitely worse defenders than him with similar skillsets who have bench roles with their teams. Damion Lee, Landry Shamet, Duncan Robinson, Sam Hauser, ect. Fournier at least gets out to the perimeter for contests with his length. Lee and Shamet especially are turnstiles.
Also, he’s not an inept passer. Doesn’t really handle the ball that well, but he can work well if teams bother to run proper sets when he’s on the floor. Unlike how Thibs did last year. And the year before. He never wanted Fournier there, so he didn’t really do much to help him, just shoved him out on the floor and said good luck. Same thing he did to Cam Reddish. I like Thibs, but he’s a mule when it comes to adjusting his preferences and sets.
Oh, he’s inept. His turnovers via the pass last year would challenge a bench player in his first year of AAU. Splash is the fact he makes $18M per to ride the bench is horrific.
Yes, because having one horrible season when you get sat for massive stretches, barely play at all, and get publicly mocked by everyone means you can never do better or be in a better situation. He was perfectly serviceable when he got consistent minutes.
“and he still has game”
A questionable assertion considering how badly he stunk it up last year. His awful defense is to be expected, but he was terrible on the offensive side of the ball as well. No sympathy for Fournier. If he’d at least shot well last year, someone would have traded for him already.
IQ’s role was never cut or even modified. He played only 9 min in Game 2 because other permeter players were playing better. Every NYK perimeter player (other than Brunson) has had games like that since Hart arrived. 4 guys for 2 spots. He was trending toward is normal 25-30 mpg in Game 3 when he got hurt. He didn’t play well in the playoffs as a whole, but there was no perceptable change in his role. For those with any perception anyway.
Regardless, the NYK, just like last year with Barrett, would be better served by holding off on an IQ extension. Its not mainly about a potential trade, although there’s that as well. IQ, like Barrett, is a keeper. But also, like Barrett, he’ll be hard to price. No reason to do it a year ahead of when you don’t have to. If the price to the team goes up, I’m OK with it, it means he had an even better year than last year. Of course, this would run counter to the league-wide trend of early extensions upon request.
Imo DiV is here. So Knicks can trade one or more of their young guards. I’m really surprised they didn’t go in on Beal trade. Considering it didn’t even take a #1 pick. Where as for Dame. They want all our picks.
Fournier, Quickley, Grimes, RJ, Mitch, McBride all can be part of a trade. Not sure if Knicks sign Quickley to an extension. How long they have to wait till they can trade him. Only trade I see that works for us. Is DeM and Rudy …… Be great to get both.
Knicks are loaded with guard capable players. Can’t imagine playing time distribution being satisfactory for all. IMHO, I’d trade IQ before a contract is signed. That’s a trade chip the Knicks can sell high and get a solid return. DiVin will probably win over Thibs and push IQ for their back, reducing his worth. As of now I can’t even see McBride getting any playing time at all.
Move IQ (and another if necessary) for someone who can make a solid contribution up front or deal him for more assets (first rounder(s)). He’s going to command $80-100M for 4 years and not sure that cap hit is worth 20 minutes per game, if that. Brunson would need to be injured for him to see solid playing time.
Further back* – autocorrect.
McBride is for real. It’s why we can move Quickley. Grimes, Quickley, Fournier, McBride, Mitch, even RJ could be moved for right upgrade. Reason I want DeM. Is cause we keep RJ in that scenario.
At this point, the Knicks are probably going to have to ADD draft capital to dump Fournier. If there was interest he’d be gone. Probably going to have to wait till trade deadline to dump him to a team looking for salary dump. I’d rather wait then give up something to dump a terrible contract. Can’t see much of a role from him unless a FEW guys go down…. I
One year left so it’s not of the upmost importance right now. No one left to sign in his slot.
The Knicks failure to trade Fournier is kinda funny and sad. It speaks to Thibs being a bad coach/communicator/talent evaluator. While I think his contract is pretty bad… Gobert. Mitchell, Fournier, and a 1st out the door, Gobert in. Maybe a 3rd team taking Mitchell
There isn’t a clue here why Fournier hasn’t played. I doubt you even watch Knick gms. You clowns think cause Thibs sat him. That he’s forgotten how to play.
He took on Thibs. That’s why he sits. His D was bad. What is worse he tried to prove his offense is good enough. You don’t play for Thibs if you don’t play D. Fournier didn’t even try at times. Then he complained about his PT. We don’t care how much you make ……. Do you know what that means ???????
We care that YOU care about holding up your end. Fournier has never been held accountable for his lack of playing D. Thibs is not that. Fournier learned the hard way ….
Fournier is a career .390% (3PT) shooter
Career .80% FT shooter. A career 17 pts a gm. If you take away last yr. A yr he didn’t even play……
Tell me how many players have done that over 10 yrs …… learn something .
Knicks have this FO and Thibs as coach for three yrs. They are going into their fourth yr. With a chance at the East title. Especially with the right trade. Which they have been exploring. We are not on Clown time here. This is NYK getting back to winning. Gotta do it right. Three yrs and we still got geniuses here.
“In Thibs we Trust”
He’s a career .380% (3PT) shooter,
Fournier is used to match salaries. Since Quickley has a rookie contract still. As does Grimes and McBride.
Quickley, Fournier, Grimes, #1 pick
DeM DeR >>>>> NYK
PG- Jalen, SG- DeM, SF- RJ, Randle- PF,
Mitch- C
That’s a contender with our depth ….. and we still have 7 #1 picks.
East title ?! I literally chuckled when I read that lol.
They were top 4 last yr. And really could have played better. Two wins away from East title. Considering there is a trade coming. I’d say the East is what you shoot for. Do you watch this game lol.
It’s gonna have to be THE blockbuster trade if the decade for the Knicks to even sniff the Eastern finals…
Quickley shouldn’t resign to play under Thibs and the Knicks should trade him if they’re all in on Thibs.
Send him to Indiana in a package for Hield and McConnell.
Quickley, Mcbride and Fournier for McConnell and Hield
The Knicks are lacking height in the front court. They also lacked outside shooting. I would trade Fournier and throw in a 2nd to sweeten the deal for Detroit Bojanovic to come off the bench for Randall or Barrett-mainly Randall. The contracts are the same and Bojanovic will bring the outside shooting spark. His defense is not the best, but is probably better than Fourniers. But no one in the league is a full lock down defensive specialist anyway. Since it’s bench minutes it should help. He is far better than any of potential backup PF that they are entertaining. Plus we get some height and much needed outside shooting.
We have waited this long, don’t make THE big mistake now. This current regime has incrementally improved the team every year, with a few hiccups. Minus Kemba and Fornier they have drafted well, developed valuable assets despite not having a constant lottery presence. Quickley, Grimes, Sims, McBride all late picks. The free agents they have gotten have been good, and the ones that haven’t are generally easy to get out of.
Fournier can be the most expensive bench warmer in the league a la John Wall. Wait for that last big piece
It won’t be a big mistake if you’re not planning on playing Fournier. From Thibs pov, it’s what we call dead weight. Actually I think that Fournier can be put in the game to break up those zones which is a Knicks weakness.
You can keep him though and package him in on a bigger trade. But the swap for Bojanovic will not require us to lose anything but we will gain height and shooting.
I love the Knicks but they may get crushed without the height in the forecourt. Miami got away with small ball but they had shooters, same as GS; lacked height but they have shooters and a super star.
Also what if Randall get hurt, do you want to throw Roby or Wright in there? Or Rj and Hart-too small to handle the likes of AD, Siskin, Giannis, Tatum,etc, At least Bojanovic can get you some points. I rather go with Sims as my backup PF.
But I understand, we can keep Fournier, but see how it works out.
It won’t be a big mistake if you’re not planning on playing Fournier. From Thibs pov, it’s what we call dead weight. Actually I think that Fournier can be put in the game to break up those zones which is a Knicks weakness.
You can keep him though and package him in on a bigger trade. But the swap for Bojanovic will not require us to lose anything but we will gain height and shooting.
I love the Knicks but they may get crushed without the height in the forecourt. Miami got away with small ball but they had shooters, same as GS; lacked height but they have shooters and a super star.
Also what if Randall get hurt, do you want to throw Roby or Wright in there? Or Rj and Hart-too small to handle the likes of AD, Siskin, Giannis, Tatum,etc, At least Bojanovic can get you some points. I rather go with Sims as my backup PF.
But I understand, we can keep Fournier, but see how it works out.