The New York Knicks are keeping their patience intact as they view their coveted draft picks being a momentum asset to paint their desired picture of finally owning a new major player.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported this Wednesday that several league executives believe that the Knicks are “kind of hoarding those first-round picks just waiting for that next megastar to become available.”
New York currently has eight available first-round picks. With this boatload of amount of selections, they can certainly land any superstar cager that will soon become available on the trade block.
They notably didn’t pull the trigger on hometown kid Donovan Mitchell last offseason, who was shopped by the Utah Jazz and ultimately landed in the Cleveland Cavaliers. According to Charania, the Knicks didn’t see the All-Star as someone worthy enough to badly chase for.
“For whatever reason, they did not believe that Donovan Mitchell was a guy they wanted to go fully, fully all-in on. … You choose that you’d rather keep all the picks and all the flexibility,” Charania said. “And you have to give [team president] Leon Rose credit for this: They’ve built up those assets necessary to when whoever that megastar is [available], they’ll be right there for him.”
It’s been five years have already passed since the franchise had enjoyed their very own basketball darling in Carmelo Anthony. With how things are going so far, they are pretty much looking on their long-term vision of possessing a player that can capably lead them to a championship.
For now, the Knicks remain dwelling on somewhat middle place of the league, with Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett headlining their core.
