Sports

ESPN’s Jared Zwerling talks Knicks, NBA, Lin and more with Kevin Rashidi

In this interview, Jared Zwerling comments on the NBA offseason, the pending Andrea Bargnani trade, Knicks’ summer options, Jeremy Lin trade rumours and the Toronto Raptors. Zwerling has covered the Knicks and Nets for ESPNNewYork since 2010. He is also an NBA contributor to ESPN.com. Prior to ESPN, Zwerling worked for Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports and started his career with the NBA in 2004. You can follow him @JaredZwerling.

Kevin: Besides Chris Paul going back to the Los Angeles Clippers, what are your early impressions of free agency so far?

Jared: Just a heads up, New York is planning to make an offer to Elton Brand. Chris Paul and Dwight Howard were the two biggest names in free agency. Usually in free agency the agents and teams wait until the biggest names go through their process until other movement is made. Obviously, some will depend on where Dwight Howard will fall because some agents look to see what kind of players would be good to surround him with. Big name players decide the market value for what other players earn.

The Nets traded for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry and now have Kyle Korver in their sights. The Knicks — being an Atlantic division rival — had to make a big move in order to try to stay competitive. I think its still early in the process for many teams and there’s a lot of restricted free agents out there and they all have the same mindset. They want their players to go out in the open market and see what kind of value they can get.

There’s a lot of conversations and talking going on right now and I think most of the movement will happen around July 10th. For example, the Andrea Bargnani trade will be finalized on July 10th when the NBA moratorium period ends, when players can officially sign withother teams.

Kevin: What is your opinion on the pending Andrea Bargnani trade?

Jared: I think the Knicks got better in the short term if Bargnani can stay healthy. He is one of the best versatile scoring power forwards in the game. He is a poor man’s Dirk Nowitzki to me and I think he can score both inside and outside. He brings great shooting off pick & roll’s between Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler. You can post him up and the Knicks need more post up scoring.

Amar’e Stoudamire will finally be healthy to start the season and has been injury riddled the last few seasons. It’s the same with Bargnani and you hope they can both stay healthy and provide some post-scoring. I think in the short term you get a great versatile scorer. I think defensively he still has to improve and I think you have to surround him with Tyson Chandler or another back up big who is very skilled defensively. I don’t know if Bargnani can be a center and match with the likes of Roy Hibbert. I don’t know if he has the strength or the defensive awareness to guard centers like Marc Gasol or Dwight Howard.

Also in the long term, he has an expiring contract in the 2014-2015 season. The Knicks are in a win now mode for the next two seasons. In summer of 2015, they have not only Bargnani’s contract coming off the books, but Amar’e, Carmelo and Chandler are also coming off the books. If they haven’t won a championship by that point, they will have a lot of money to rebuild their team. I think it is a win in the short term and a win long term.

Obviously on twitter there’s a lot of negativity surrounding the trade. I think a lot of that has to with Bargnani’s injury history and how he can play with Melo and Amar’e. Does the team have too many power forwards now that play similar positions?

Mike Woodson has to figure that out this offseason. Melo and Bargnani both can play the four. I cannot imagine Amare and Bargs both coming off the bench. Both have star power and I can’t see that happening. It’s interesting seeing the potential conflicts on the court as far as spacing goes and how the offence will be orchestrated. I think a big issue for the Knicks is, they have to avoid isolations and with Bargnani coming in, he can’t really be an isolation scorer. In Toronto, I thought he developed well off the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop, so hopefully Mike Woodson will utilize him in different schemes.

The Knicks have to be really careful to monitor their isolations and really balance out the offence with continuity with great ball movement and spacing to really utilize their offensive strengths.

Kevin: Who initiated the talks between the Raptors and Knicks?

Jared: I don’t know who specifically initiated it, but I can tell that you Glen Grunwald has a history with Toronto as he was a former GM there. He didn’t draft Bargnani, but he has very deep connections to Toronto and had interest in the past in Bargnani. There was talk of a Bargnani for Amar’e trade before. No team wanted Amar’e because of his uninsured contract, his two bad knees. Plus he also had eye surgery. The Knicks would love to trade Amar’e right now and there is no question about it, but with his injury riddled career and his contract, it’s not going to happen. .

Also, Bargnani’s agent Leon Rose works for CAA and they represent Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith and Mike Woodson, so there was a lot of connections. I don’t know who picked up the phone first, but I assume it was Glen Grunwald because of his connections to Toronto.

Mike Woodson has to figure that out this offseason. Melo and Bargnani both can play the four. I cannot imagine Amare and Bargs both coming off the bench. Both have star power and I can’t see that happening. It’s interesting seeing the potential conflicts on the court as far as spacing goes and how the offence will be orchestrated. I think a big issue for the Knicks is, they have to avoid isolations and with Bargnani coming in, he can’t really be an isolation scorer. In Toronto, I thought he developed well off the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop, so hopefully Mike Woodson will utilize him in different schemes.

The Knicks have to be really careful to monitor their isolations and really balance out the offence with continuity with great ball movement and spacing to really utilize their offensive strengths.

This is really the thing I believe Woody has in mind. I think Woody sees a way to have another Post player in his starting lineup who can play with Melo as well. No matter what play Woody calls he can make it work with AB on the floor. If he wants to spread the floor and open up the paint for Melo to post up, he can do that cuz AB can go out to the 3pt line with ease. If he wants to run a Pick for Melo he can also use AB as the pick setter. You can have AB and Melo in a 2 man game very easily. As for AB guarding a center like Hibbert can he be any worse than Tyson looked in the playoffs? I mean no big we have could claim to be a Hibbert stopper. I'm not gonna worry about the occasional big game from Hibbert. Hibbert also has to deal with Bargnani and he doesn't have the quickness or agility to stay with AB so there's that too.