On February 14, before the trade deadline, the New York Knicks failed to make a move to change the status quo of the team, and the Lakers' offers of Nawei Shao, Tucker and the first-round pick could not impress the Knicks to send Reddish and Burks, and in the end, the Knicks chose to maintain the existing lineup to complete the season. But the Knicks are currently only 12th in the East, as many as 7.5 wins away from the 6th green army in the East, and it is basically difficult to rush into the playoffs, as a comparison, the Knicks last season's regular season In the East 4th.
In order to get out of this slump in a short time, according to the New York Post, the Knicks will chase Lillard, the top guard, in the offseason and strive to get out of the trough. The New York Post said that the Knicks will plan to use Barrett, who has grown into the core of the team, to sign a lotto to trade Lillard, in addition, the New York Post emphasizes that the Knicks will target Lillard, because the Blazers have sent away a number of main players and dismantled the lineup, and this is the best time to pursue Lillard.
It can be expected that the Knicks pursue Lillard in such a plan, it is basically difficult to achieve, after the end of last season, the Knicks gave Randall a big contract, but so far this season, Randall has a poor performance in the big contract, averaging 19.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, is only 42% shooting percentage, as an interior player, this is unqualified, Randall did not do what a core player should do. To this end, Lillard's idea of fighting for the championship cannot be achieved by partnering with Randall, the Knicks themselves are not competitive, and how to make the star players willing to play here?
In addition, the Knicks' top management's vision has always been a problem, after the end of last season, the Knicks had intended to compete for DeRozan, who had decided to leave the Spurs at that time, but in the end, the Knicks executive chose to give up, on the grounds that the team's vice president and consultant William Wesley believed that the DeRozan tank was out of oil, was no longer a star player, and was not worth investing. DeRozan, who then joined the Bulls, played a career-best season so far in the season, averaging 27.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, shooting 51.2% from the field and being selected as the Eastern Conference All-Star starter. Imagine, if deRozan's current Knicks, and then bring lillard, how can the Knicks not be competitive?
The Knicks' overall regression this season is for a number of reasons, Randle's sluggish performance, the injury of bench leader Rose can not be malled, these are the key reasons, and expanding the focus to the Knicks' team building plan in the past decade, the Knicks executives are basically difficult to get superstars from the free agent market, the last time the Knicks grabbed the superstar is Anthony in 2010, 12 years ago.
(Lin Xiaoxiang)