DRose, Noel, Burks are signed for 3 years with Team options for the 3rd year. That means that next year, these guys are expiring contracts. These deals allow for our youth to have vets around, some stability, and time to develop. Frankly, the Knicks are not winning the 2022 championship, no matter what move they made.
Evan Fournier is 4 years with a team option for the 4th year. He is tradeable. This is a market rate deal for him, and the fact we got a 4th year option is a great move.
Kemba is a 2 year deal (expiring deal next year). If he sucks, he can be traded at 8m per, or simply cut. I'd rather have kemba at 8m than Lonzo Ball for 20m.
In reality, there were no free agents on the market of any value. Chris Paul got past the 2nd round once in his career, and signed a 4 year deal. Kyle Lowry? Lowry led the raptors, with equal or better talent than the 20-21 knicks, to the lottery this past year - he signed 3 years, 90m with Miami - will be interesting to see how that goes. Who was truly available to sign? Derozan? Led the Spurs to the Lotto. Kawhi? He is supposedly not playing in 2021-22, plus he is often injured. Hard to sign a superstar in Free Agency, as everyone extends to make way more with the home team.
The best hope for improvement is the draft or trades. Unfortunately, we did very well last year, and did not have a lotto pick in a talented draft. Hope we keep doing well, but without a championship, we are a treadmill team.
It will be hard for the Bucks to defend their title and win again, with the aging Lakers retooling, the Suns having another go at it, and the Nets hoping to be healthy, with Philly and Heat going hard this year.
8/4/2021 11:23 PM