NEW YORK – Just when New York Knicks fans thought the worst season in franchise history couldn’t get any worse, it did.
After watching superstar Carmelo Anthony shut things down with a knee injury and his constantly changing teammates stagger to a 17-65 mark – the second-worst record in the league – the Knicks dropped two spots to fourth overall in Tuesday night’s NBA draft lottery.
General manager Steve Mills summed it up for the team’s title-starved fans watching at home, bowing his head dejectedly on the dais.
No homecoming for Karl-Anthony Towns, the consensus top overall prospect and a Knicks fan growing up.
No Jahlil Okafor, either, a player dubbed the next big thing since his sophomore season in high school.
So where do the Knicks go from here?
By dropping in the draft, the Knicks almost certainly will miss out on the chance to upgrade the frontcourt and land Towns or Okafor, the top two projected picks in the draft. The Knicks will look to fill the frontcourt with a healthy Anthony at power forward and target free agents such as center Greg Monroe as I previously reported back in December.
For those wondering about Marc Gasol, don’t think too long and hard him. He is a pipe dream at best, as Chris Sheridan previously reported.
LaMarcus Aldridge? He wasn’t a fan of the frigid New York weather when he was in town for All-Star Weekend in mid-February, when temperatures hovered around zero degrees.
With the fourth pick, the Knicks are likely left with one of two playmaking guards – D’Angelo Russell or Emmanuel Mudiay – or small forward Justise Winslow.
The Philadelphia 76ers select third overall and are expected to pick either Russell or Mudiay.
Russell is a better fit for Phil Jackson’s desired triangle offense due to his playmaking and shooting ability as a combo guard. Although not overly athletic, Russell reminds some evaluators of Manu Ginobili and Brandon Roy.
Mudiay was the top-ranked point guard in his high school class and excels when attacking in transition similar to John Wall. He made the play of the 2014 Jordan Brand Classic when he threw down an insane 360 alley-oop.
“Mudiay is potentially a very good player,” Mills said. “We haven’t worked him out yet, but he’s a guy that we think will obviously be in the mix. But we will look at all of our options and we will feel good about whoever we end up selecting.”
Coming off 17 wins, how could you not?
Mills did not go to China to scout Mudiay personally, for what it’s worth.
Winslow boosted his stock during the NCAA Tournament as I outlined in a previous SheridanHoops column. With Anthony now suited ideally to play an undersized power forward in the small-ball era, Winslow’s two-way game would be a welcome addition in Manhattan.
“We feel really good about four,” Mills said. “We feel good that in this draft we could have gotten a good player anywhere from one through five. We went into this optimistic and we remain the same way.”
After the foursome of Towns, Okafor, Russell and Mudiay, notable players in the consensus second tier include Winslow along with big men Kristaps Porzingis and Willie Cauley-Stein.
The Knicks have a glaring need for a rim protector since Jackson’s first big trade last summer, when he sent Tyson Chandler, the 2012 Defensive Player of the Year, back to Dallas.
Cauley-Stein is a prospect the Knicks have heavily scouted and could replicate the defensive presence Chandler brought on a nightly basis. Cauley-Stein can stay with smaller guards in pick-and-roll situations or switches due to his athleticism. On offense, Cauley-Stein relies heavily on putbacks and alley-oops off pick-and-roll sets.
Porzingis is a gifted athlete who can run the floor in transition and thrives as a shooter coming off screens. On defense, Porzingis can protect the rim as a help defender and has the ability to cover pick-and-rolls and show on pick-and-pop sets.
The 7-foot Latvian power forward will draw significant interest from the Orlando Magic (No. 5), Sacramento Kings (No. 6) and Detroit Pistons (No. 8), league sources tell SheridanHoops.
Should the Knicks look to trade down, Frank Kaminsky is also a possibility – albeit a slim one at this time. Kaminsky’s ability to stretch the floor is a welcome component of the triangle. Last season, New York’s underwhelming collection of power forwards that included journeymen Jason Smith and Lou Amundson routinely shot elbow and baseline jumpers within the flow of the offense.
Trading the pick for a veteran also is not out of the realm of possibility, although that strategy has failed the Knicks in the past. Or do you not remember Isiah Thomas acquiring Eddy Curry?
Thomas, a long-time confidant of owner James Dolan, recently returned to the organization as president of the WNBA’s New York Liberty, giving him just enough proximity to have Mills looking over his shoulder.
“I think we’re going to be open to a lot of things, but we know we can get a good player at this pick,” Mills said. “We’re also going to be open to talking to teams and looking at different options.”
The fourth overall pick has produced its share of stars and busts over the past 15 years. Franchise cornerstones included Russell Westbrook, Mike Conley, Chris Paul and Chris Bosh. Meanwhile, disasters include Wesley Johnson, Tyrus Thomas and Marcus Fizer. With that in mind, the fourth pick is truly a hit-or-miss selection with little wiggle room.
“I think our goal is to become a playoff team,” Mills said, repeating Jackson’s stated – and unattained – objective of last offseason. “We feel like we have the opportunity to gradually build this team, continue to get better and we’ll go into free agency again the following year. We’ll still have additional cap room with the salary jump that the cap will make. We’ll do the things that we have to do to make this team better. I feel very confident about that.”
It starts with the draft pick. Despite the disappointment of falling to fourth, the Knicks haven’t picked this high since winning the first lottery and selecting Patrick Ewing 30 years ago. The pressure is on Jackson and Mills to get the franchise back on track in a New York minute.
If not, Thomas will be chirping in Dolan’s ear.
Michael Scotto is an NBA columnist for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeAScotto.