Getty Leon Rose, New York Knicks
The New York Knicks will be without a pick in June’s NBA Draft after the Dallas Mavericks remained at No. 10 following Tuesday night’s draft lottery.
The Knicks entered the night with a 20% chance of grabbing this year’s Dallas pick, representing the final payment for the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade.
But the Mavericks’ late-season tanking that cost them a hefty $750,000 fine worked. The Knicks still have two chances to cash in the pick — next year and 2025 with the same top-10 protections. If it still doesn’t convey, it becomes a 2025 second-round pick.
They have also traded their own first-round pick, 23rd overall, to the Portland Trail Blazers as part of the Josh Hart package. Their second-round pick, 53rd overall, also went out last year as part of the Draft Night trade for the rights of 13th overall pick Jalen Duren from Charlotte. Duren was subsequently shipped to Detroit as part of the Knicks’ salary dump, opening the necessary cap room to sign Jalen Brunson in the free agency.
Where Do the Knicks Go From Here?
Without a pick, the Knicks have three pathways to tinker on their roster that went two wins away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals.
First, they can always run it back and bet on internal development and use their $12.2 million non-taxpayer and $4.5 million bi-annual exception, to add quality depth.
They could exceed the salary cap to re-sign Josh Hart because they have also acquired his Bird rights in the trade, whereas it would have been difficult to sign him via free agency if they didn’t trade for him.
Their second pathway is to make a smaller trade where they can consolidate some of their young players and take a small bite at their draft capital to flip for a starter-level player such as Toronto Raptors’ two-way wing O.G. Anunoby to add to their core of Brunson, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett.
The Knicks have their own first-round picks over the next six drafts, along with four protected picks from other teams, including Dallas.
The third option is to cash in their draft capital and go all-in for the next available star to pair with Brunson.
Knicks Believe a Brunson-Embiid Pairing Make Them Title Contender
The Knicks are closely monitoring the messy situation in Philadelphia after their third straight second-round exit, with their eyes locked on the reigning MVP Joel Embiid.
Embiid’s affinity to Knicks president Leon Rose, his former NBA agent, would be hard to ignore if the 76ers fail to re-tool after firing Doc Rivers. The Knicks feel they are more equipped now than last year to go all-in for a star.
“[With] Donovan Mitchell [last summer], they decided not to go all in,” ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said on the May 15 episode of his “The Lowe Post” podcast. “They were willing to go a lot in, [but] they did not go all in because they did the calculus or whatever you want to say and did not feel like getting Donovan Mitchell to pair with Jalen Brunson put them in a championship position.”
“I am pretty confident in saying that they feel like putting Joel Embiid on that roster with Jalen Brunson as their second-best player would give them a legitimate chance to win championships, and I believe that to be true despite the fact that what we just said about Joel Embiid and his history of playoff disappointments,” MacMahon added.