After losing to the Atlanta Hawks in the first-round of the playoffs this year, of course the New York Knicks are going to be disappointed, but they need to view this season as a major success. Not only were they not supposed to make the playoffs this year, but the Knicks proved to everybody that they are way ahead of schedule in terms of their “rebuild” process and they finished as the fourth best team in the Eastern Conference during the regular season. That will make them want to improve even more next season and finding a way to acquire New Orleans Pelicans point guard Lonzo Ball could be a perfect way to do just that.
The job President Leon Rose, GM Scott Perry, and head coach Tom Thibodeau have done with this organization is quite remarkable and if this year is an indication of anything, it is that the Knicks are finally back.
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With Julius Randle having a breakout, All-Star season this year, R.J. Barrett continuing to grow in his second year in the league, and guys like Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson, Alec Burks, and Nerlens Noel carving out their roles for this team moving forward, the Knicks are in a great position to potentially add more talent in the offseason.
Entering the offseason, New York is expected to have nearly $55 million in cap space, but with them likely to re-sign guys like Rose, Burks, and Noel, the Knicks will have probably close to $30 million to play around with in free agency, which is still a whole lot of money to add a whole lot of talent to their team.
One name that has come up in rumors linked to the Knicks ever since the trade deadline is Lonzo Ball and while he is a restricted free agent, giving the Pelicans the right to match any offer sheet he signs, there are some early indications that New York could be a team that Lonzo wants to play for moving forward.
If Ball decides he wants to sign with the Knicks, could the Pelicans pull off a sign-and-trade in order to try and salvage some value from Ball instead of just letting him sign elsewhere in free agency? Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report seems to think so as he produced the following offseason trade proposal between the Knicks and Pelicans.
Let’s take a look at the trade that would send Ball from the Pelicans to the Knicks via sign-and-trade this offseason.
