https://nypost.com/2018/12/22/knicks-summer-plan-may-not-include-a-big-free-agent-splash/
According to NBA sources, Knicks brass no longer views 2019 as a make-or-break free-agent summer. The 9-25 Knicks feel their plan can still go on even if they do not sign a big fish in July.
Adding a potential top-five lottery pick, developing their three rookies — Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier — as well as former lottery picks Frank Ntilikina and Emmanuel Mudiay, and
easing Kristaps Porzingis into actionare deemed larger priorities.
The way the free-agent landscape is with the new “supermax” contracts, the Knicks are at a severe competitive disadvantage financially, especially entering July 1 coming off one of the NBA’s worst records.
Certainly if Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson or Kyrie Irving want to be the next New York messiah, the Knicks will be thrilled. They have tentative moves in place to open up a maximum $38 million contract slot, according to sources, for Durant. (Whether that entails trading Tim Hardaway Jr.’s pact is unclear.)
But the Knicks, who are $32 million under the cap, are opposed to giving a 2019 free agent a max-like deal “unless that player would be a dramatic difference maker to the team’s fortunes,’’ a source said.
When president Steve Mills met with media Friday in a conference room at 2 Penn Plaza, he downplayed the urgency of 2019 free agency. Rolling over the cap space to 2020 or keeping space open to have flexibility to trade for a star are options. Rumors persist Anthony Davis will want out of New Orleans this summer, and the Knicks are said to be on his list.
