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 action are 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.
“We are in a position if we need to find a slot for a max salary we can do that,’’ Mills said. “Our focus is on the guys that we have right now, developing them, and also developing the environment, or the culture, that exists around our team.
“If we don’t make this a place the guys internally feel something good is happening and believe in what we’re doing, that’s not going to be attractive to people who are on the outside,’’ Mills added. “Our guys have to feel it and then they [free agents] have to hear about it and see it in how our guys are interacting with us. The plan is that we develop an environment that free agents should want to be here.”
The flaw to Mills’ plan is the 2020 class is nothing like 2019’s. However, perhaps Durant will do another two-year Warriors’ deal with an opt-out and become eligible again in 2020. Durant could be more entranced by the Knicks when Porzingis and Knox are further along.
Mills also may believe the young core plus two more lottery picks (2020 included) could get them there. To that end, the Knicks will mull re-signing some of their young guys. Though Mario Hezonja has not progressed, another former lottery pick, Noah Vonleh, has. So, too, has Mudiay.
“We know that if we get to a point we can create the room to attract a max player,’’ Mills said. “But we also hope that some of the guys on our roster force us to pay them. Our goal is to develop these guys and make them as good as they possibly can be so that we have some hard decisions to make and that we feel like there are more people than just the three rookies we can grow around.”
The Knicks, losers of nine of their past 10 games, are on a collision course with rock bottom. As bad luck would have it, this is the first lottery in which the team with the league’s worst record won’t have the best odds of 25 percent. In a format change, the bottom three will have an equal 14 percent chance to win the Zion Williamson Lottery.Though the Knicks hold the fifth-worst winning percentage, they are tied with the Bulls and Cavaliers for most losses at 25. The Knicks are just one game out of last place, and their upcoming schedule should put them dead last, solidly.
The Knicks host the 22-9 Bucks on Christmas, then embark on a murderous six-game road trip — Milwaukee-Utah-Denver-Los Angles (Lakers)-Portland-Golden State.
“Obviously I’m not happy with our record,’’ Mills said. “Even though this is a rebuilding process, I think we’ve been pretty clear that sort of our approach is to try to win every game we possibly can. While our guys are finding a way to fight in games, when you see young players play, they don’t always know how to keep themselves out of digging deep, deep holes’’
Porzingis’ post-All-Star break return is vital to start a bond with rookies he’s never played with — Knox-Robinson-Trier.
It’s not, Mills said, to show 2019 free agents he’s his old self.
“The most important thing for us is to have Kristaps on the court when he feels comfortable being on the court and we feel comfortable he should be out there,’’ Mills aid. “That’s more important than any timetable this season — or some point in the summer.”