Ok, Knicks fans, the Draft Lottery was last night and as I am sure you have heard, The Knicks for some reason are the laughing stock of the Lottery. A team that has not moved UP in the draft in 35 years when we selected Patrick Ewing.
We knew two things going into this Lottery.
1. The Knicks could NOT get the #5 pick and
2. The Knicks had a 20.7% chance of getting the #8 pick, which is very high. So...?
All I want to do is put last night in perspective, and as someone VERY high on LaMelo Ball, I am disappointed too but pay attention.
This draft is VERY Unique. Where there are plenty of names like Ball, Edwards and Weisman around the top of the board, there is no clear cut #1 pick to waterfall after that and if the Knicks got the #1 pick, lets face it, we would have gotten made fun of since there is no Zion or Lebron James at the very top of the draft.
I am not saying that we cannot find value at 8, I'm not saying that the #1 won't be a huge success. I am saying that the Knicks have plenty of options. What are those, you ask?
1. The Knicks keep the 8th pick and expect Walt Perrin to work his magic like he did with Spyda and Gobert then hand the draft picks over to the new coaching staff who are very deep into player development.
2. Trade with Golden State. This is tricky because GSW is in "win now" mode and I am not totally sure the Knicks have any pieces that would help them immediately OR that they would want (that isn't named Mitchell Robinson). And the Dallas picks we have aren't attractive to them either due to the aforementioned "win now" mentality.
3. Trade DOWN. I know, I know you're a group that wants the #1 pick not a mid-teens pick but honestly, taking that Celtic pick at 14 and drafting Nico Mannion plus acquiring a pick next year or so could help trade for a superstar, which brings me to point 4.
4. Give that #8 to Phoenix or Utah for DBook or Spyda and let's get rolling.
Obviously there is almost 2 months to go before we see any viable scenarios come about but its NEVER TOO EARLY to start speculating but depending on what Minnesota does with the #1 pick, that is when we will know what the value of the pick will be to other teams. If it's Edwards, I could see the Knicks making a strong play for Ball. If Ball goes #1, Knicks stand at 8 but again, who knows?!
Let's talk about it on Twitter @theoutlethoops.