@LoPo gonna love this ****.
I'm seeing that the Knicks are basically saying we hate Kevin Knox. I get it... he is terrible... like really bad... like a poor man's Trey Lyles. That's not very good... but they have done him no favors... kid is not even 21. He's in NY. The organization is toxic and they have played him as a SF with a bunch of ball hoggy dudes and they have no shooting. As bad as he's been he's has the type of frame that has some upside (6'9" with a close to 7 foot wingspan), he's kinda athletic and his shot isn't broken. Even if he was good I think that environment really chokes out talent... you can plant an amazing fruit tree in the desert and it will still die.
Frankie Smokes has also been bad... solid defender and still super young. Worth a flyer on talent... At very least I could see him as a solid 4th guard alongside DM or JC to take the tougher defensive assignment. The biggest asset he provides is that he is the link that binds our two best players. DM is tight with him and he is French which will hopefully help him identify with Rudy.
Two interesting flyers... 1 may have some locker room benefits. We tout our ability to develop guys... here are some guys that had enough talent/upside to get drafted in the mid lottery.
NY needs Mike Conley... he's perfect... help them build some respect, veteran that can setup the younger guys, help their team go from anemic to scrappy? Can serve as a mentor to whatever young pg they draft (if they draft a pg).
Sooooo.... we trade Mike for Frank and Knox and 2-3 good second round picks (they have Charlotte and Detroit's 2nd rounders in 2021). They can do an uneven trade because they have copious amounts of cap space. This obviously saves us some money, but it also creates a huge trade exception. So say we get a player like Christian Wood to agree to sign with us for something over the midlevel... we now have a cap asset to use in a sign and trade. Detroit could pick up a second rounder for their trouble. Could also be used in season and we could use our MLE without worry of going into the tax. Basically this offseason we will be choosing between using the MLE or re-signing JC... doing both will push us in the tax and that ain't happening in this economic environment.
Basically I am good with our top 6 dudes right now... Ingles, DM, Bojan, Royce, Rudy with JC off the bench... we have some interesting prospects but I could see Frank being a solid 8th guy... I have less hope for Knox but he's kind of a big swing guy. IF he figures it out (and he has a lot to figure out) he's a high upside talent and the type of player that is really valuable. I honestly have more hope for Brantley being a useful player.
Having the trade exception allows us to do some things to add to that top 6 with something more useful than Mike. He's our 7th most important player imo and redundant... yet he eats up a ton of our cap space. Would rather get some flyers, middling draft assets, and cap flexibility.
