Zion could hit Garden in preseason
said he pegged Irving’s relocation to Brooklyn at “99 percent.” Dinwiddie added that Irving’s connection to the Nets through his childhood fandom growing up in New Jersey was genuine.
Still, Irving arrives with some baggage after an ugly season in Boston, where he received much of the blame for the team’s poor chemistry. But Ainge came to his defense Thursday. “We had chemistry issues during the season, and I did say that it was not all of Kyrie, that it was a lot of people who responsible for the chemistry issues,” Ainge said. “I don’t like the fact that it’s all, blame it on him. I’d like everybody to take responsibility for that. So I feel like the Kyrie-bashing is
unfair.” Affordable MSG tickets alert.
The Knicks announced their preseason schedule Thursday morning and three of their four games are at home. The potential highlight is the finale Oct. 18 vs the Pelicans, with Zion Williamson on the opposing roster, pending his availability.
The other games include:
10/7 at Washington
10/11 vs. Washington
10/16 vs. Hawks
For Knicks fans, these will represent the first opportunities to see third overall pick RJ Barrett after his upand-down performances in Summer League. The Knicks also signed several new free agents, highlighted by veteran Marcus Morris.
The Hawks have two lottery picks (DeAndre Hunder, fourth overall, and Cam Reddish, 10th overall) to help point guard Trae Young. The Wizards drafted Japan’s Rui Hachimura ninth overall. Of course in this era of load management, it’s not safe assume they’ll be active. Williamson was just recently scrapped from Summer League for precautionary reasons.
According to ticketiq.com, the average regular-season ticket in 2018 was priced at $285 in the secondary market for Knicks games, the third highest in the NBA but also well below the Warriors and Lakers. Wherever the preseason ticket prices land, it will be way below that.
In April, Knicks executives Steve Mills and Scott Perry penned a letter to season-ticket holders boasting of their assets and cap space.
“We can honestly say that the future of the New York Knicks is extremely bright,” said the letter. “Through our trade of Kristaps Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Courtney Lee and Trey Burke to Dallas, we enhanced our organizational plan by acquiring a young dynamic player in Dennis Smith Jr., a veteran leader in DeAndre Jordan and two additional first-round picks.
“We now have seven first-round draft picks over the next five years, and we remain committed to adding young talent to a team that is currently one of the two youngest in the NBA. In addition, we have created a tremendous amount of financial flexibility, which has put us in a position to potentially sign up to two max free agents.’’
Jordan agreed to sign with the Nets, and the Knicks struck out on the top targets in free agency, leaving them to sign short-term pieces on inflated salaries. Still, they retained all their future draft picks, following the philosophy of former team president Phil Jackson in not dealing first-round picks.