To be completely honest I'm a bit stumped by Phil's plans for the Knicks. The recent acquisitions of Robin Lopez (4yr/ $54.01M), Aaron Afflalo (2yr/ $16M), Derrick Williams (2yr/ $8.8M), and Kyle O'Quinn (4yr/16.01M) makes this current roster seem pretty deep with not only starting big men but young talent coming off of the bench as well. The chance of Afflalo, a once perennial starter, possibly being used at the sixth man will bring additional offense and take at least some of the load off of Carmelo Anthony's back. Add that with the 2015 Draft Pick Kristaps Porzingis, and you have enough potential to get a spot in the playoffs. But what about a ring?
It's obvious that this team doesn't have much chemistry at the moment besides the Porzingis-Grant duo that surprised the NBA Summer League, which is expected and is almost a non-problem. Players will not mesh in a day especially when they haven't played a single game with each other. This group of big men will definitely be more worth it when compared to the $11 million dollar bandit that was Andrea Bargnani, but is the risk a tad bit too high? Williams, while showing spurts of all-star potential, has yet to live up to the hype that his fellow 2011 NBA Draft classmates Kyrie Irving and Enes Kanter have exceeded. New York native Kyle O'Quinn's stats aren't too impressive until you notice the lack of minutes he's played with his former Orlando squad, although we'll have to see if he can handle the pressure of playing in the Mecca. Kristaps is plagued not by his own abilities, but by the past failures of other European players that turned out to either be busts or journeymen. While the odds of these three young players becoming all-stars aren't statistically hanging in their favor, the potential reward would be too good to pass up on.
The biggest question marks for the Knicks at the moment is Carmelo Anthony and Jose Calderon. With Carmelo coming off of a long rest after his knee surgery half way through the season, Anthony will definitely be with the Knicks, but how much of him is what's in doubt. As a player that has always depended on his first step in order to score, a knee injury is much more career crushing than it would be to the likes of Kevin Durant who often uses the pick and pop rather than bump and jab step his way to 25+ points a night. The positive side to this, however, is that with the sudden surplus of talent coming off the bench, Carmelo will play less minutes thus possibly preventing a similar injury to occur next season. The issue with Calderon might not be as bad considering that his mediocre stats only seem to point at the lack of fire power the Knicks had last year. If you really expect Jose to put up high assist ratings while only having Galloway and Shved as the leaders in scoring, then one must reevaluate your expectations of what a point guard that has scored about 10 points of game his whole career can do to help in that situation. If healthy, Jose will be solid.
The one undeniable part of this whole shift in roster is that the lofty contracts of Bargnani and Stoudamire are long gone, opening up opportunities for the Knicks in the foreseeable future. That combined with the rise in cap space coming in the 2016-2017 season will give New York a second chance to shop for big time players if needed. While at the moment they might not seem like much of a threat playoff-wise, the Knicks are on the right path after a cataclysmic year. And with the young talent they have aqcuired this off season, there is a definite possibility of going beyond the expectations and surprising a few folks.
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