The roster of the New York Knicks is mess right now. And it could become a catastrophe if small forward Carmelo Anthony opts out and leaves for another team. Amar’e Stoudemire, Andrea Bargnani, and Tyson Chandler are currently scheduled to take up approximately $50 million of the league’s 2014-15 projected salary cap of $63.2 million. Obviously, none of those players deserve the money that they are making, which you can find here, but they all have one thing in common: their contracts expire after next season, which could be a key asset in any trade.
Then you have the players with character concerns. J.R. Smith seemed to find his way into the news that did not involve basketball more than it did. Raymond Felton was arrested on felony gun charges in February and potentially faces jail time.
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The Knicks also have almost no assets. They traded away their 2012 first round pick to shed themselves of Jared Jeffries‘ contract. Luckily, that pick became Royce White. They left their 2014 first round unprotected when it was traded in the Melo blockbuster of 2011 (Orlando now owns the pick). Most recently, the Knicks threw away their 2016 first round pick for Bargnani and this.
The outlook for the future has some hope, however. Back in March, the Knicks hired 13-time NBA Champion (11 as a coach, 2 as a player) Phil Jackson to be their new President of Basketball Operations. His championship pedigree and nearly 50 years in the game of basketball should bring a stable force at the head of team management. He has already made it known that the team has every intention of acquiring either a first round pick, a second round pick, or both. It would not hurt, either, to acquire future draft picks.
So, the question is, how could the Zen Master get the Knicks more draft picks?