{"id":117658,"date":"2020-11-22T18:54:14","date_gmt":"2020-11-22T15:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/knicks-free-agency-flop-means-tank-is-on-for-cade-cunningham\/"},"modified":"2020-11-22T18:54:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T15:54:14","slug":"knicks-free-agency-flop-means-tank-is-on-for-cade-cunningham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/knicks-free-agency-flop-means-tank-is-on-for-cade-cunningham\/","title":{"rendered":"#Knicks\u2019 free-agency flop means tank is on for Cade Cunningham"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Knicks\u2019 free-agency flop means tank is on for Cade Cunningham<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n What Blue Saturday proved is Knicks senior VP William Wesley\u2019s connections and charisma won\u2019t draw top players to New York overnight.<\/p>\n

While striking out so far in free agency has given the Knicks cap flexibility for the star-studded 2021 free-agent class led by Giannis Antetokounmpo and maybe Anthony Davis, that wasn\u2019t Plan A. Or Plan B.<\/p>\n

When their priorities fell by the wayside, including landing Gordon Hayward, the Knicks resorted to Plan T \u2013 Tank. One-year deals on fringe guys with dreams of 2021.<\/p>\n

The Knicks entered free agency with a league-high $40 million in cap space and with heady visions. They wanted to be a major playoff threat in coach Tom Thibodeau\u2019s first season and bring glamour back to the Garden \u2013 even if it might be empty for the 36-game<\/a> home schedule.<\/p>\n

That is why they drafted a more ready-made forward in native New Yorker Obi Toppin, age 22, over Israeli project forward Deni Avdija, 19, when both surprisingly dropped to No. 8.<\/p>\n

Avdija, a playmaking forward, could be the next\u2026Gordon Hayward. The Israeli had his fans in the Knicks organization.<\/p>\n

The Knicks acted like a title contender on Wednesday\u2019s draft night when they wanted to keep open a roster spot for free agency and decided to hastily trade the 33rd pick in the draft \u2013 which most executives covet \u2013 for a 2023 second-round pick. They had little time to wheel as all their targets came off the board, including Duke center Vernon Carey Jr. at 32.<\/p>\n

Those are not the actions of a rebuilding team, but one looking to turn around its miserable fortunes right away in a hurried, chaotic 2020-21 season. They wanted to give star-caliber coach Thibodeau, who usually doesn\u2019t covet rookies, the best chance.<\/p>\n

As it unfolded on Blue Saturday, the Knicks went from potentially being a legit playoff contender (10 teams qualify in each conference) to competing for the No. 1 lottery seed in the 2021 draft with a chance at 6-7 combo guard Cade Cunningham of Oklahoma State. He\u2019s the NBA\u2019s Trevor Lawrence.<\/p>\n

\"Knicks
Cade Cunningham is the NBA\u2019s Trevor Lawrence \u2014 the consensus No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.<\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Things can change, of course, if Russell Westbrook happ<\/a>ens. Suddenly, the three years, $131 million left on his contract doesn\u2019t look so unappealing for the 32-year-old point guard. If the Knicks decide to go after it, they\u2019d only execute a trade for a big discount.<\/p>\n

The dreamboat scenario for Rose\u2019s squad was using much of their cap space to sign DJ Augustin to start at point guard and Gordon Hayward and Carmelo Anthony to plug in as the forwards.<\/p>\n

The Post has learned once the Knicks found out recently that point guard Fred VanVleet only had eyes on staying in Toronto to continue his close bond with backcourt mate Kyle Lowry, Augustin became their top priority at PG.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe a published report the Knicks were not willing to give VanVleet the four years, $85 million the Raptors offered. Sources say they would have done it in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s irrelevant. VanVleet wanted to stay. The bigger issue is why they couldn\u2019t land Augustin. Knicks GM Scott Perry, according to sources, adored Augustin when he had him in Orlando. Augustin is not a Creative Artists Agency client and Rose did not have the edge.<\/p>\n

Augustin signed with the powerful Milwaukee Bucks for a reasonable three years, $21 million. The Knicks would have had to massively overpay.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau considered his former Minnesota PG, Jeff Teague, as a possibility but he wasn\u2019t too high on the list and they let him sign with Boston for one year.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the staff didn\u2019t think it was too much of an upgrade over CAA-controlled Elfrid Payton, their starting point guard in 2019-20, who inked a new one-year, $5 million deal.<\/p>\n

Yes, Perry still is in love with Payton, whom he drafted in Orlando.<\/p>\n

The biggest downer was not being able to get Hayward to New York. They were not willing to risk Hayward\u2019s injury history by coming close to matching Charlotte\u2019s four-year, $120 million offer.<\/p>\n

The Knicks entered free agency feeling they could sign Hayward for two years. Hayward\u2019s pact was a major overpay by Charlotte. Plus, Hayward had some interest but it didn\u2019t seem the former Butler forward really wanted to be here. His hometown Pacers were his top choice.<\/p>\n

Entering Sunday, the Knicks had used half of their cap space on Ed Davis\u2019 contract, bench scoring forward Alec Burks, re-signing Payton and reserve big Nerlens Noel, a former lottery pick who also played for Knicks assistant coach Kenny Payne at Kentucky.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s four Kentucky players now on the roster, continuing the \u201cOrange and Bluegrass\u201d state of affairs.<\/p>\n

So far, the Knicks just haven\u2019t bolstered the roster in a significant way on the first two days of free agency, What does it say when even Anthony preferred to be on a playoff team in Portland and repay the Blazers for resuscitating his career than New York? Anthony had to say no to his beloved former agent. So did former Rose client Chris Paul, whose addition originally was Plan A-plus before he was traded to the Suns.<\/p>\n

Those events actually might be the best two things not to happen. On Blue Saturday. Rose got saved from himself. Tank on.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Knicks\u2019 free-agency flop means tank is on for Cade Cunningham” What Blue Saturday proved is Knicks senior VP William Wesley\u2019s connections and charisma won\u2019t draw top players to New York overnight. While striking out so far in free agency has given the Knicks cap flexibility for the star-studded 2021 free-agent class led by Giannis Antetokounmpo…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/NBA-Draft-2021-Cade-Cunningham.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[81008,81038,12532,80786,81039,80149,78552,79381,72932],"class_list":["post-117658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-22-20","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-d-j-augustin","tag-elfrid-payton","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-gordon-hayward","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-new-york-knicks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}