Knicks Today – Latest Knicks News

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D’Antoni, entering the final year of his contract as Knicks coach, and is concidered by many to be a leading canidate for the newly vacant head coaching position in Toronto. According to the New York Daily News Toronto president Bryan Colangelo has a good relationship with D’Antoni from their time with the Pheniox Suns. Colangelo hired D’Antoni and together they transformed the Suns into one of the NBA’s most successful and entertaining teams. If D’Antoni chooses to leave, Kentucky coach John Calipari, who is represented by CAA, the same agency that represents Anthony and Hornets point guard Chris Paul, who can become a free agent in 13 months. Also this will no doubt reignite the Phil Jackson to the Knicks discussion.

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The Knicks have the 17th pick in the upcoming draft and have many needs that need to be filled if they want to be a top team in the East next season. Here is who is under contract for next season…..

PG – Chauncey Billups

SG – Landry Fields

SF – Carmelo Anthony

PF – Amare Stoudemire

C – TBD

Bench – Toney Douglas, Bill Walker, Andy Rautins, Renaldo Balkman

The Knicks obviously  need a starting center, backup point guard and a shooter coming off the bench. Lets now examine the options.

Center

(R)- Restricted free agent, (P)- Player Option

Top center free agents- Marc Gasol (R), NeNe (P), Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan (R), Samuel Dalembert.

Possible Centers in draft (Available at pick 17)- Donatas Motiejunas, Bismack Biyombo, Davis Bertans (all international players)

Result- With the top centers costing to much and the draft not being very deep at the center position the knicks will most likely go with a cheap center but dont be surprised if shot blocker/rebounder Samuel Dalembert joins the Knicks next year.

Backup Point Guard/Shooters

Top Point Guard/Shooter free agents- Aaron Brooks (R), Grant Hill, resigning Shawne Williams (Not a lot in free agency)

Possible Point Guard/Shooter in draft (Available at pick 17)- Jimmer Ferdette, Darius Morris

Result- Knicks pick Darius Morris with the 17th pick to sure up the backup point guard position, which will leave Toney Douglas playing as the 2nd guard and sparingly at point guard. I’d also expect the Knicks to resign Shawne Williams for a shooter coming off the bench and playing defense. The Knicks ultimate goal is to pick up a point guard in the summer of 2012 when both Chris Paul and Deron Williams will be free agents.

(Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

In his rookie season Brandon Jennings was making the Knicks look bad for passing on him in the 2009 NBA Draft. But after a terrific rookie season the point guard did not have as much succes in his sophomore season. His rookie numbers were 15.5 points and 5.7 assists per game over 82 games. In his sophomore season his points per game went up to 16.2 but his assists fell to 4.8 and only played in 63 games because of a foot injury. According to CBSSports.com the point guard lashed out at his teammates and management in April. This maybe why there are reports of the Bucks looking to ship the talented point guard out of Milwaukee.

While talking about the end of the world New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he dosent believe it will. His reason? “Think about it, if the world ends tomorrow, it would fix our traffic problems. But the world cannot end tomorrow, do you know why? It can’t end until at least until the Knicks win a championship again so we’ve got a long time to go.” He managed to even throw in a little shot at the Knicks. Hopefully next year will be the year!!

Chauncey Billups will have an MRI on his left knee, sometime in the near future. Billups strained the knee last month in the 4 game sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics. ”I can’t get on the court and really like grind, grind,” said Billups, “I’m still not ready to do that, but I’m getting better though. At this point, I’m just kind of taking it easy, man.” Donnie Walsh picked up his $14.2 million option for the 2011-12 season shortly after losing to the Celtics last month.