2018 NBA free agency grades: Knicks take flier on Noah Vonleh

The New York Knicks continued their busy offseason, taking a chance on a former lottery pick turned outcast in Noah Vonleh.

The 2018 NBA offseason has been filled with interesting additions for the New York Knicks. It’s time to add another to the list, as the team has brought in big man Noah Vonleh on a one-year deal, according to ESPN‘s Ian Begley.

The former ninth overall pick back in 2014, Vonleh split time this season between the Portland Trail Blazers and Chicago Bulls, with fairly low averages of just 4.9 points and 5.8 rebounds a night.

Coming out of Indiana, Vonleh’s game appeared to fit right into the trends of the modern NBA, as a guy with great length, physical gifts and the potential to become a reliable floor-spacer at either power forward or center.

Since that time, though, none of those skills have really materialized, with Vonleh struggling to figure out what exactly his niche is on a basketball court.

In four seasons, the most minutes he’s ever gotten was 19.0 per game, and that was in just 22 appearances this past year for Chicago, a team that was clearly more interested in ping pong balls than actually competing for wins.

Standing at 6’10” and weighing approximately 240 pounds with a 7’4” wingspan, Vonleh still has the potential versatility that can allow him to thrive in the NBA, something which can’t necessarily be said about plenty of draft busts.

For a Knicks squad slowly rebuilding from the ground up, it was a pretty smart move on their part to take a flier on a guy like Vonleh. After all, he is still just 22 years of age, which is roughly the same as a 2018 first round pick Grayson Allen.

Can Vonleh become a starter next to Kristaps Porzingis? The odds certainly aren’t in his favor, but the man did average 10.9 points and 12.8 rebounds per 36 minutes this past season, which shows he can, in fact, produce in limited playing time.

The key for Knicks head coach David Fizdale to get the most out of Vonleh is figuring out not only which teammates best complement his style of play, but also assessing at what point throughout the 48 minutes should he be playing.

Is he a guy that can be the first big off the bench and bring energy and hustle when the starters simply don’t have it, similar to the role former Knicks center Kyle O’Quinn played so beautifully for three seasons in New York?

Or maybe Vonleh is a guy that plays better closer to halftime with a mix of the first and second unit?

Should Vonleh succeed with the orange and blue, the team will be ecstatic at the value they’ve received on the cheap, which would probably translate to another deal to stay in the Big Apple.

If not, then New York can simply let him look elsewhere in the summer of 2019, knowing it took a flier on a guy without handcuffing itself financially.

That seems like a win-win proposition, and with both sides looking to rise back up through the ranks after a fall from grace, they really seem like a perfect match.

Grade: B