The New York Knicks are in revamp mode and with the pressure from all of the Knicks fans worldwide, President Phil Jackson and staff know that they must make some moves this offseason. They landed Kristaps Porzingis with the 4th pick in the NBA Draft, and despite all the eruption of disgust from the masses, people still believe that he has great potential, it just might not happen as fast as they would like.
The Knicks know that just adding few draft picks isn’t going to be enough to get them where they want to be. So their only other option is free agency, and picking up Greg Monroe and Arron Afflalo wouldn’t be bad looks for them.
The New York Knicks are frontrunners to land both, according to Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo Sports:
Knicks are frontrunners for two free agents — Greg Monroe and Arron Afflalo, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Those are realistic targets.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 29, 2015
Arron Afflalo is a quality player in this league, whether it’s starting or coming off the bench, he’s a hard worker on both sides of the ball. He was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers last season to serve as a backup to Wesley Matthews, but he quickly became a starter again due to Matthew’s unfortunate achilles injury. Afflalo averaged his lowest scoring output of his career last season, but he’s still a solid knockdown shooter from the outside and that can serve as an asset for the Knicks, especially with the loss of Tim Hardaway Jr.
Greg Monroe could be a big move for the offense of New York. He played his entire career with the Detroit Pistons but after feeling unwanted there, he decided to become a unrestricted free agent. Monroe is a guy that likes to operate with his back to the basket which suits the triangle well and in addition, he’s a huge ‘glass eater’. A beast on the boards, opposing teams have a difficult time keeping him out the box. The combination of Monroe and Porzingis could work out well for the Knicks. With Kristaps having the ability to stretch the floor and shoot from the outside, they wouldn’t run into trouble of having too many bodies in the paint.
These could be two quality signings for the Knicks in free agency, the kind that can at the very least help make them competitive again.
