The New York Knicks have hit the reset button on their young core already, apparently in a move to try to land major free agents this offseason like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The Knicks are also rumored to be in the running for Anthony Davis.
Part of that reset for the Knicks included trading Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks at the deadline this season. Thought to be a franchise cornerstone, Porzingis will be part of a new young core in Texas if he can come back from a major knee injury stronger than he was before.
The Knicks were also able to jettison the contract of Tim Hardaway Jr., who was handed $71 million in the summer of 2017. For his part, Hardaway recently told the New York Daily News that he felt New York gave up on the two players too soon.
Via New York Daily News:“I let them know we definitely had something good going here my first time back with KP and myself in the lineup at the same time. Then I got injured, then he got injured. And then it kind of went downhill from there,” Hardaway said Monday after his Mavericks were pummeled by the Nets, 127-88. “I let them know what we had was special and I really think they didn’t give us an opportunity to have KP. That’s what I told them. But it is what it is. We move forward.”
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“Yeah, it’s mind-blowing and it’s kind of weird when you go back to a team and they trade you again,” he said. “So it’s weird but at the same time you have to move forward.”
The real gamble for the Knicks will come this summer, and if they don’t get not one but multiple stars for their team, pressing eject on Porzingis could turn out to be an all-time head-scratcher.
For now, New York fans will wait to see if they land Durant, Irving, or Davis.