11 FREE AGENTS WHO WONT COST THE KNICKS ALOT THIS SUMMER BUT WILL HELP ALOT
By Mike Vorkunov
We all know by now who the Knicks’ main targets in free agency are this summer. Are they even worth
repeating again?
But no matter if the Knicks hit on their big recruiting pitch or they strike out, they need to improve the roster. Whether they have some $70 million to work with or a lot less, they’ll need to be smart and frugal with their money. Signing a star, if you can, is obvious. It’s the marginal additions that can really work out and make a team better for a much smaller investment.
To try to identify a few gems, in addition to how well they played, I looked at two advanced stats (ESPN’s real plus-minus and Cleaning The Glass’ expected wins) to see who did well in both, hoping that an overlap could be a marker for who to highlight. Below are 11 free agents the Knicks should consider and think about signing. They won’t go for top dollar on the market but they can still get significant returns. The list starts, appropriately enough, with a Golden State big.
Kevon Looney, center, Warriors:Looney hasn’t quite been a revelation for the Warriors this offseason. Those who’ve watched how well he’s fit in with Golden State this season and before know what he can provide. Looney is a good defender — he can switch defending pick-and-rolls — and he’s a good finisher (62.5 percent FG%). He’s still young, 23, too. Looney has overcome hip surgery to find a steady place in Golden State. Steve Kerr calls him a
“foundational piece.” If Looney can play 20.5 minutes per game in the playoffs for the Warriors, he can play for the Knicks. Looney would be a very good complement at center with Mitchell Robinson, though they defend in different ways. Looney was 29th in Real Plus-Minus this past season and the Warriors played like a team 12 wins better when he was on the court than when he was off. So he’s an analytics darling and passes the eye test.
Ed Davis, center, Nets: Davis would fit in on any team. He’s known to be one of the best teammates in the NBA — there have been
hosannas written for him — and he’d do well on the Knicks whether they need him as a sage off the bench for a young squad or as a productive big to help them if Kevin Durant comes. Davis was 35th in Real Plus-Minus this year in Brooklyn, and the Nets played like a 50-win team when he was on the court but a 36-win team when he sat. The former lottery pick, 31 next week, is a very good rebounder, averaging 8.6 in 17.9 minutes this season, and sturdy — he’s played at least 78 games in four of the last five seasons. Davis would fit in well on the Knicks as a big coming off the bench to spot Robinson, coming off a one-year, $4.4 million deal.
Patrick Beverley, guard, Clippers:Beverley should be a top priority for the Knicks because he’s exactly what they need. He’s a tenacious defender, hounding point guards across the court and gets in their heads as a pest to opposing teams. His stats won’t wow — he averaged 7.6 points, 5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in 27.4 minutes — and he’s not a great shooter. Heck, he’s a 41 percent shooter from the floor for his career but he shot 39.4 percent on 4.1 3s per game over the last four years. Get Beverley to be a tone-setter, a pugnacious defensive leader, a spot-up shooter, and the Knicks should be just fine in the backcourt. The Clippers were — he was 37th in RPM and they played 16 wins better when he played.
Al-Farouq Aminu, forward, Trail Blazers: Somehow, he’s still just 28 despite coming into the league in 2010. Aminu can toggle between both forward spots and he did it relatively well in Portland. He ranked 65th in RPM this season and the Blazers played like a 59-win team when he was on the floor but a .500 team when he wasn’t. Aminu isn’t great at any one thing. He shot 35.7 percent on 3s these last two seasons but he rebounds well enough and the Blazers allowed 2.2 fewer points per 100 possessions with him than without him last year. He’d be a good player off the bench after finishing off a four-year, $30 million contract.
Willie Cauley-Stein, center, Kings: In some ways this would be a classic Knicks move. He’s a former high lottery pick, he’s still only 25, he has a big school pedigree, and while Cauley-Stein didn’t bust in his first NBA like several of the second-draft guys the Knicks have brought in, he also didn’t hit expectations. But Cauley-Stein has produced — he averaged about 12 and 8 last season — and he does really well by the advanced metrics. The Kings were 13 wins better with him on the floor than off. He finished 15th among centers in real plus-minus (one spot ahead of DeAndre Jordan). And the Knicks would be better off trying to find a center to split time with Robinson on the cheap rather than paying bigger money for, say, Jordan. But the catch here is that Cauley-Stein is a restricted free agent so they might not actually be able to get him that cheaply, but still if no market develops for him and the Kings feel they already have a glut of big men, maybe the Knicks can swoop in.
Dewayne Dedmon, center, Hawks:The 29-year-old center took some steps forward in Atlanta. He became a 3-point shooter — he hit 38 percent on 3.4 3s per game — a critical skill for a big man now. He could be a nice juxtaposition for the Knicks at the position with Robinson, giving David Fizdale the leeway to play a shooter-heavy lineup if he wanted to. Dedmon was a net positive on offense and defense for the Hawks and they played 10 wins better with him on the floor compared to him on the bench. He is coming off a two-year, $14 million contract with the Hawks, but at the right price he’s another example of why the Knicks should preserve their money from overspending on centers with Robinson already on the roster. The position has been marginalized in some ways now and paying for it, especially when there’s already a capable center in place, wouldn’t be the best expenditure.
Aron Baynes, big, Celtics: Baynes wouldn’t be an exciting signing but he’s interesting. He’s already 32 and another former Spurs big but he seemed to bring some positives to the Celtics. The Celtics played eight and 10 wins better with him on the floor the two years he was there (he made $5.2 million this year and has a player option for next season) and that’s after the Pistons played like a 58-win team with him on the floor for 15.5 minutes a night in 2016-17 and a 29-win team when he sat, according to Cleaning The Glass. The Celtics defense has been stingier with him playing and while he’s not an offensive threat, he can at least stretch the floor a little bit, hitting 34 percent of his 1.2 3s per game this year, and 13 of 29 3s over the last two playoffs.
Noah Vonleh and Luke Kornet, Knicks: Putting these two together here after the Knicks watched them play all season. They’ll probably come in at different price points and each has their own benefits. Vonleh would make a nice multi-positional fit for the Knicks again but he’ll probably cost a little more than Kornet, who could fit in as a poor man’s Brook Lopez.
Jeremy Lamb, guard, Hornets: This might surprise you but Lamb, 27, finished seventh among all shooting guards in RPM in 18-19 and he was a +12 in wins. He shoots too many mid-range jumpers when he should be finding his way into corner 3s (where he hit 53 percent of them, according to Cleaning The Glass, which put him in the 99th percentile). He could surely find himself with a few corner 3s if he plays alongside Durant or another high-level creator.
Tomas Satoransky, guard, Wizards: He steadily grew into a larger role in Washington (it helped his playing time that John Wall was hurt) and at 27 he seems to be a solid guard off the bench. Satoransky has size at 6-7 and can play both guard spots. He can shoot — he shot 39.5 percent on two 3s per game in 2018-19. He finished 13th among all shooting guards in real plus-minus and the Wizards played like a 39-win team with him and a 27-win team when he sat.
My nikkas in here warring.
