Tanks, but no tanks…
NEW YORK – The 4th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery certainly wasn’t what the New York Knicks organization and faithful fans wanted to hear. They envisioned shades of the late great former Knicks player and general manager Dave DeBusschere painstaking fist bump against the dais when 30 years ago, the Knicks won the Patrick Ewing sweepstakes.
No such luck this time around. But with the record the Knicks had in this past miserable of a season, they were assured of no less than the 5th pick. They managed to secure the 4th pick.
Some cynics and critics might suggest that had the Knicks not won those last 2 meaningless games against the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks, they’d be where the Minnesota Timberwolves are. The Wolves won the Lottery and have awarded themselves the first pick in this coming NBA Draft.
Sort of ironic with regard to the Hawks; as the season before last the Knicks’ playoff life rested in the balance of the Hawks for the eighth seed. The Knicks missed out by one game. They were in the Lottery, but had to surrender that pick because of a trade.
This year however, the Knicks (thanks mostly to a League rule) couldn’t trade this year’s pick before the Lottery took place. A sigh of relief for Knicks fans as they’ve witnessed time and again the organization pawn away young talent before it was either drafted or incubated into the system and have gone on to bigger and brighter things.
So the choice for Knicks, if they keep the pick at 4 and don’t trade down, would perhaps be Emmanuel Mudiay out of recently China or D’Angelo Russell out of Ohio State. They are both dynamic guards in their own right and much better skill wise than what’s on the roster at present.
Both backcourt men are 6-foot-5. Russell possess deft passing and is a better shooter while Mudiay is the better athlete and better defensively and in rebounding.
Could the Knicks go wrong with either player? In talent, they shouldn’t but if either isn’t comfortable running the triangle that could pose a serious problem. And the Knicks could hardly afford a Rajon Rondo (in Dallas) type of deal over system and play calling issues.
Jerald L. Hoover