New York Knicks free agency: 5 realistic targets this summer

As NBA free agency kicks into high gear for the New York Knicks, these are five realistic targets for the team to consider this summer.

The New York Knicks are in the middle of one of the most important offseasons in recent memory. New general manager Scott Perry is off to a hot start with the hiring of premiere head coaching candidate David Fizdale.

Unlike his fallen predecessor, team president Steve Mills was willing to let the fans in on what the plan was for this free agency period. Mills told Stephen A. Smith of ESPN Radio that the Knicks are looking ahead to the 2019 offseason.

Via Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News:

“Our goal is to get our house in order, develop the foundation,” Mills said Thursday on ESPN Radio. “We are not going to be players this year. If we sign guys, it’s going to be for one-year contracts.”

There you have it Knicks fans. Actual words from the leader of your front office. New York isn’t looking to compromise their cap room for next summer by committing long-term. That makes sense.

With stars like Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, and Klay Thompson all potentially available the franchise must be in a position to be free agent players again. But New York can’t just run it back with the same team as last season.

The Knicks may be waiting patiently to spend big money on in 2019, but they can still find some good players to sign on reasonable deals right now.

These are the top five realistic free agency targets for the Knicks.

1. Mario Hezonja, SF, 23

Ian Begley of ESPN reported shortly after free agency began that there was mutual interest between the Knicks and Mario Hezonja. That makes sense considering Scott Perry was a member of the Orlando Magic front office in 2015 when they drafted Hezonja.

The 23-year-old showed promise as a rookie but hit a terrible sophomore slump and fell out of Frank Vogel’s rotation.

Hezonja didn’t play defense well enough for his new head coach, but he played the best ball of his career last season after Orlando declined the fourth-year option on his contract.

Hezonja had six 20 point games last season compared to just one in his first two seasons combined. The 6-foot-8 wing could be a good stats on a bad team in a contract year guy (what a perfectly acceptable mouthful), but he’s still worth a shot on a one-year deal.

Hezonja is a perfect target for New York. Despite his “breakout season” in 2017-18, there shouldn’t be a team in the Association willing to commit to him long term.

2. Amir Johnson, C/PF, 31

Another tweet from Ian Begley states that New York has already reached out to veteran big man Amir Johnson. The former Celtic is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career so he should be available at a bargain price.

Johnson posted a career-low in field goal percentage and for the second straight season averaged less than five rebounds per game. He posted his lowest minutes and points totals since the 2008-09 season, his fourth in the league.

The former Sixer won’t be coming in for his stats. Clearly. This is a guy who has been around the block. He came into the league out of high school, and he’s played on four different teams in 13 seasons.

Johnson was on the Celtics team last season that went to the Eastern Conference Finals. He would bring a lot of experience and knowledge to the locker room.

3. Anthony Tolliver, PF, 33

Stretch four extraordinaire Anthony Tolliver has already been linked to the Knicks. According to The New York Post‘s Marc Berman, Scott Perry had a phone conversation with Tolliver on Saturday night.

Tolliver is a league average player who makes the deep ball at an elite rate. He’s a 37.6 percent career shooter from three-point range but made an even more impressive 43.6 percent from downtown in 2017-18.

He’ll give Knicks fans some games like this one when Tolliver dropped a season-high seven threes in a game against the Sixers this past March.

Much like Johnson, Tolliver has been around the block. In fact, even more so than Johnson because he has played for nine different teams in 10 seasons.

The former Sacramento King is about as unremarkable a free agent as they will find on the market, but he fits New York’s criteria. Tolliver’s a veteran who’ll sign a one-year deal, and he can even do some spot starting duty until KP returns from injury.

4. Seth Curry, G, 27

Well, the Knicks missed out on Steph Curry. Just kidding. There’s much more to Seth Curry’s game than how good his brother is.

Seth played point guard in Dallas so he can run an offense and we know he can play off the ball. Curry shot 42.5 percent on threes on 4.6 attempts per game in 2016-17.

After missing the entire 2017-18 season due to injury, Curry could look to sign a one-year deal to try and increase his value when more teams have cap room next summer. That’s where the Knicks come in.

Putting aside how ridiculous the expectations might be, and yes they would probably be ridiculous, it would be fun to see a Curry in New York.

5. Glenn Robinson III, SF, 24

Robinson is another interesting experiment. Like Curry, he shouldn’t cost much because he missed most of last season due to injury.

If you don’t like the phrase “3-and-D wing” well then you probably don’t like the modern NBA. You might not like Glenn Robinson III for the Knicks either because that’s what he projects as a young 3-and-D wing.

Robinson is a career 38.1 percent shooter from three-point range and he would automatically become one of the best perimeter defenders on the team. Next to Kevin Knox? That’d be nice to see.

Robinson’s just 24 years old; he’s already played four seasons and been on three different teams. He was waived by Minnesota 25 games into his rookie season, picked up by Philly, then spent his last three seasons with the Pacers.

The Knicks are looking to move Courtney Lee, and they need to find one or more players to take his minutes in the rotation. Robinson, a young wing with upside, could slide right into that role.

He also has an in with a couple current Knicks. Robinson was on the Michigan team along with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke that went to the National Championship game.