James Dolan and Knick fans suffer through another dreadful season, only to drop from 7th spot in draft lottery.
No luck from Walt’s suit, drop 1 spot
Shooting Guard.
Kentucky. Monk is undersized for a wing in the NBA, but the team drafting him will hope he makes up for a lot of those disadvantages with his athleticism. Monk is a scorer, plain and simple, as a top-notch jump shooter who knocked down 40 percent of his treys at Kentucky. But he’s less of a playmaker and more of a catchand-shoot complimentary piece, which the Knicks already have in Courtney Lee. If Monk can develop into a combo guard who can run the point, he’d be a better fit in NY. 19. 6-4.
Clyde Frazier wore his championship rings. He threw on his favorite suit, freshly-tailored and festively purple like Mardi Gras.
Still, no luck for Frazier and the Knicks. No celebration. The Ping Pong balls again failed the franchise.
With Frazier on stage repping his former team at the lottery Tuesday, the Knicks fell to eighth in the draft – one spot below their seed – and the night felt like just another defeat in the Phil Jackson era.
“I always wear the rings. I had them on to no avail,” said Frazier. “I came in optimistic we could get in the top-3.”
In the end, one meaningless victory in the final game of the season cost the Knicks two spots in the draft. That gamewinner from little-used Maurice N’Dour against the Sixers sent New York into a tie for the sixthworst record with the Timberwolves, who won the lottery tiebreaker last month and found out Tuesday they’re drafting sixth.
It could be the difference between a franchise player and a bust, or it could push the Knicks into a better choice by accident. The draft is often a crapshoot, but generally it’s advantageous to have a better pick.
The snake-bitten Knicks haven’t moved up in the lottery since drafting Patrick Ewing in 1985. It’s like 32 years of payback for the rumored frozen envelope.
“Seven (seed) could have been 10. So eight, we’ll live with it,” Jackson said.
Indeed, the Knicks could’ve dropped all the way to 10 on Tuesday. Or they could’ve climbed all the way to 1. They carried an 18.3 percent chance of moving into the top-3, and a 5.3 percent chance of winning the lottery and drafting either Markelle Fultz or Lonzo Ball. Instead, they watched division rivals Philadelphia and Boston land the No. 3 and No. 1 spots, respectively.
“We’ll get a talented young player,” Jackson reassured. “Hopefully somebody who can contribute this next year.”
Jackson has mostly failed as a team president with an 80-166 record, but he can claim some success in the draft – namely Kristaps Porzingis and Willy Hernangomez. In the June draft, Jackson said he’ll be looking for guards and wings, since the Knicks overloaded in the frontcourt.
By falling to eighth in the lottery, however, they’re out of the range for Fultz, Ball and De’Aaron Fox. Perhaps Malik Monk will fall on draft night, but most projections have the Kentucky guard in the top-7.
That would leave NC State’s Dennis Smith Jr. and Frenchman Frank Ntilikina as the top point guards on the board, less than a month before Derrick Rose enters free agency.
“It’s crucial (to land a point guard),” said Frazier, the greatest point guard in franchise history who currently works as a color commentator on the team’s network. “You need an orchestrator. It looks like Rose might not be back so we’re definitely going to need a point guard.”
Jackson said he’s casting a wide net, but one specific to wings and guards.
“I think there’s going to be 50 kids that’s going to be in this draft that are going to be well-known,” he said. “Sixty get drafted. There may be 10 that are going to be unknown. I don’t anticipate us pulling a rabbit out of a hat. We’re looking for the