The Miami Heat are where the New York Knicks were hoping to be. Instead, their attempt to build around a Big 3 backfired as the franchise took a major step backwards, failing to even make the playoffs in the insanely weak Eastern Conference.
There has been a changing of the guard as James Dolan has shelled out a ton of money to hire Phil Jackson as team president and hire the recently retired Derek Fisher as a first-time head coach. The next step this off-season is convincing Carmelo Anthony to remain a Knick rather than opting out of the final year of his contract and testing free agency.
New York Knicks (37-45 last year)
2014-15 Projected Depth Chart:
C: Tyson Chandler/^Jeremy Tyler
PF: *Andrea Bargnani/*Amar’e Stoudemire
SF: *Carmelo Anthony/Metta World Peace
SG: Iman Shumpert/J.R. Smith/Tim Hardaway Jr./#Shannon Brown
PG: Raymond Felton/Pablo Prigioni/^Toure’ Murray
NBA Free Agents:
*SF-Carmelo Anthony (PO)
*PF-Amar’e Stoudemire (PO)
*PF-Andrea Bargnani (PO)
PF-Kenyon Martin (UFA)
PG-Beno Udrih (UFA)
C-Cole Aldrich (UFA)
#SG-Shannon Brown (TO)
^C-Jeremy Tyler (RFA)
^SG-Toure’ Murray (RFA)
2014-15 Team Salary: approximately $91.5 million
Team Needs:
1. Convince Melo to Stay:
Carmelo has a player option on the final year of his contract worth about $23.5 million. More than likely, he will opt of his deal and test the waters to see what interest is out there. Teams like the Bulls, Rockets, Mavs, and even Heat have already been thrown around as potential suitors for Melo. The latest buzz has Miami’s Big 3 all taking paying cuts to allow Anthony to join them in South Beach and create a Big 4.
Jackson has already been aggressive in trying to convince Melo to stay in the Big Apple but after this past season, you cannot blame Anthony for wanted to start anew somewhere else. Maybe Jackson can convince Anthony to stay one more year and then try to make some major moves next summer with all that cap space freeing up. Working out a sign-and-trade to try and net something in return would be another option. This should be one of the most interesting plots of the NBA off-season.
2. Bargain Shopping:
Since New York is massively over the cap and doesn’t have any picks in the 2014 NBA Draft, they will have to go bargain shopping in free agency hoping to land role players for the league minimum. Frontcourt depth is the biggest need on the roster and small forward will be added to that list if Melo does leave.
3. Patience:
If Melo ends up bolting for greener pastures this summer, the Knicks would be best off holding pat and not making any major moves. With Stoudemire, Chandler, and Bargnani all coming off the books after next season, New York has the potential to start from scratch in the summer of 2015 since they would have a boatload of cap space. Trying to make major moves and acquiring massive salaries has only hurt the franchise and maybe they’ll actually learn from their lesson.
OTHER NBA OFF-SEASON TEAM NEEDS PAGES:
David Kay is a senior feature NBA Draft, NBA, and college basketball writer for the Sports Bank. He also heads up the NBA and college basketball material at Walter Football.com and is a former contributor at The Washington Times Communities. David has appeared on numerous national radio programs spanning from Cleveland to New Orleans to Milwaukee to Honolulu. He also had the most accurate 2011 NBA Mock Draft and the most accurate 2012 NBA Mock Draft on the internet (Yup, repeat champ… #humblebrag), and finished with the second most accurate 2013 NBA Mock Draft (nearly a three-peat.) You can follow him on Twitter at David_Kmiecik.