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With two promising picks in the 2018 NBA Draft (Kevin Knox-9th overall, Mitchell Robinson-36th overall) the Knicks organization and fans have one thing in mind - The summer of 2019. As everyone is aware, the summer of 2019 has its share of big names in the free agency with the likes of Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, DeMarcus Cousins etc.
Coming to the topic- Knicks. The Knicks seem to have found their franchise player in Kristaps Porzingis and have filled the void in their roster by drafting Kevin Knox, a young energetic 3-and-D player with lots of potential. The Knicks will have somewhere around $45 million in cap space and can spend up to $67 million if they can afford to pay the luxury tax.
With these numbers in mind, here are a few moves that might happen:
Kyrie Irving
This was probably an obvious one. With the Celtics all-star point guard hinting about not having any intentions to renew his contract with the Celtics after the 2018/19 season, NY seems like a viable option for quite a few reasons. Kyrie grew up in New Jersey and would probably like to come back home. The second reason being the market in NY. We've most recently witnessed that Kawhi Leonard wants a move from San Antonio to a bigger market like LA.
There have been rumors that Kyrie had told his teammates in Cleveland that he wanted a move to NY. However, this move has a few obstacles. The Knicks seem to have found long-term point guards in Frank Ntilikina and Trey Burke. So we'll have to wait and watch if the Knicks will choose star power over their own talent.
Jimmy Butler
Rumour has it that Jimmy Butler wants to join forces with Kyrie Irving and dominate the east. While the probability of this union happening in Boston is very slim, both players, who will become unrestricted free agents next summer might ally with Kristaps Porzingis in the "Big Apple" to create a dynasty to compete with the Boston Celtics and maybe even the Golden State Warriors (who in 2019 are most likely to lose a player or two from their current roster) for the championship.
Again, this move depends on how well the rookie Kevin Knox performs. But Jimmy Butler seems to have made it clear that he doesn't want to share the floor with Karl-Anthony Towns and I don't see him returning to the Timberwolves.
DeMarcus Cousins
While playing alongside Anthony Davis at New Orleans, Boogie put up some incredibly good stats. Should he join the Knicks, he'll again be paired up with an efficient scorer and elite shot-blocker in Porzingis. Boogie will get more rebounds and can help Porzingis play at the perimeter. Again this depends on how good his performance with the Warriors will be as he's most likely to miss the first half of the 2018 season recovering from his ACL injury.
Also, he would demand a max contract in 2019 if he can put up decent figures with the Warriors in the latter half of the coming season and postseason, which makes it tough for the Warriors to re-sign him if they want to retain Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson. As far as the Knicks are concerned, this move can be a game winner.
Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant- Arguably the second best player in the NBA and an elite scorer, recently signed a 1+1 contract with Golden State which makes him a free agent in 2019, should he opt out of his contract. In my opinion, this is a very unlikely move and depends on what the Warriors' front office decides to do with Cousins.
If the move can actually go through, the Knicks can resign Kanter to a long-term deal and bring another star to complement KD and the team is seat to make Conference Finals. With this, the team might also be able to convince Durant to sign a longer deal.
Karl-Anthony Towns
Karl-Anthony Towns is a restricted free agent in 2019.
Enes Kanter is on the final year of his contract with the Knicks and the team will look for a big man who can contribute more on the defensive end and can shoot the ball from deep. Karl-Anthony Towns checks all these boxes. Like I said about Cousins, similar will be the case with Towns. The Knicks can boast of a supreme frontcourt of Porzingis and Towns and can be a legit threat to teams.
This move, however, depends on who Timberwolves prefer to retain- Towns or Butler, as they clearly don't want to play on the same team. Also, Towns has somewhat expressed his dissatisfaction with the team. If there is the slightest news on the availability of Towns next season, Knicks should clearly pounce on this opportunity to bring him to New York.
These are just a few moves that I feel the Knicks could make to bring the glory back to the 'Mecca of Basketball'. I have covered the most probable moves in this article. One thing is for sure, the next 18 months should be really exciting for Knicks fans.
Guess the Lakers players!
