The Knicks signed F Julius Randle after missing out on bigger names on the first day of free agencyNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
The Knicks' strategy, after having "dramatically failed in their pursuit" of big-name free agents at the start of this offseason, "seems to be ... doing the same thing again," according to Rodger Sherman of THE RINGER. The Knicks in February traded Kristaps Porzingis to the Mavericks for the ability to potentially sign Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. But once Durant and Irving chose to sign with the Nets, instead of "pursuing second-tier options in free agency or helping other teams clear contract space and receiving assets in return," the Knicks "signed six unremarkable players to contracts that the team can terminate early." For a solid decade, the Knicks' "primary strategy has been based on the idea of Knicks exceptionalism, that the biggest stars in the league will ignore everything and ditch the Middle American city they play in to star in the Big Apple." But years of "free agency snubs have proved that the only special thing about the Knicks is that every big-name star understands not to trust the franchise with the prime of their career" (THERINGER.com, 7/2).
JUST A MESS: THE ATHLETIC's Mike Vorkunov wrote a team "lost in the wilderness for nearly two decades now will remain searching." The Knicks "must move on, hopping from one plan to another." The team "likely must continue on a slow-build approach, storing cap room and developing its young players" (THEATHLETIC.com, 6/30). CBSSN's Adam Schein said this "whole thing is an embarrassment" for the Knicks." The Knicks have been a "disaster" under Owner James Dolan, while the Nets are going to be "hip, they're going to be hot." The Nets are "now officially New York's team" ("Time to Schein," CBSSN, 7/2).
STAKING THEIR CLAIM: In N.Y., Marc Stein wrote the Nets in signing Irving and Durant "won their most meaningful duel yet with New York's purportedly more glamorous basketball team -- handily." The Nets "achieved, in less than four years, what the Knicks have been chasing for nearly 20." The Nets "lured the fantasy partnership" of Irving and Durant because they "concluded that no other team in the NBA was better positioned to handle their star power." The Knicks and the Nets were the two teams that "could most easily accommodate the players' salary demands, along with their shared desire to live" in N.Y. Some around the league "believe Durant's recent Achilles' tendon tear, more than any James L. Dolan-related ineptitude, is what doomed the Knicks." Durant and Irving were "already mentioning the Nets' attractiveness as a free-agent alternative to the Knicks before the end of the regular season." It is a "handy reminder that in the modern NBA top players and their representatives take a more active role in team building than ever before" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/3).
