Knicks rumors: New Orleans Pelicans not high on Kevin Knox

Recent New York Knicks rumors will put a dent in their trade hopes, as the New Orleans Pelicans reportedly aren’t high on Kevin Knox.

Right when the regular season ended for the New York Knicks, Knicks rumors began picking up. Attention was turned right away to how the team could upgrade this offseason for the 2019-20 season.

New York has a great chance to quickly turn things around in free agency. While it wasn’t easy, the front office cleared enough money that the organization has two max free agent slots available to them this summer.

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have been the players most linked to New York. However, there are other great players such as Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson and Nikola Vucevic that will be free agents this summer.

In addition, Anthony Davis will more than likely be on the trade block as well.

The NBA Draft Lottery was the first thing that Knicks’ fans got excited about in the offseason. They went into the lottery as one of the three teams with a 14 percent chance to land the No. 1 overall pick, but ended up third.

While fans were disappointed, it could have been worse. The Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers, the other two teams tied with the Knicks, ended up dropping to No. 5 and No. 6 in the draft.

While the drop wasn’t ideal, the No. 3 pick is still a good one to have. There are three prospects that stand above the rest in this year’s draft class; Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett of Duke and Ja Morant of Murray State. Williamson is expected to go No. 1, followed by Morant and Barrett.

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As things are currently situated, Williamson looks ticketed to the New Orleans Pelicans, Morant to the Memphis Grizzlies and Barrett to the Big Apple. However, there is a chance that Barrett never makes it to New York.

It is no secret the Knicks are looking to upgrade the roster in a big way this summer. Free agency provides that chance, but they could take it even further and add another star via trade. Could that star be Davis?

In addition to the Knicks, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are going to go hard after Davis in trade talks. If the Knicks want to land Davis, they have the best draft pick to dangle in trade negotiations. However, they will need to add players to the deal, and that is where things get tricky.

New York has some intriguing young players in Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, Dennis Smith Jr., Frank Ntilikina and Damyean Dotson.

Those players do not quite meet up to the Lakers’ group of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart, or the Celtics duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

All of those prospects have received high praise, but the same cannot be said about the Knicks’ group. According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, the Pelicans are not very high on the former first-round pick.

Bondy reports that talks with the Pelicans would begin with Robinson, the team’s second-round pick in 2019, not Knox. New Orleans reportedly isn’t high on Knox, who they were gathering intel on earlier in May. That intel must not have been great if they aren’t high on him.

Knox struggled during his rookie season, putting together one of the worst rookie seasons in NBA history.

It was even worse than the rookie season Ntilikina had in 2017-18, so it is understandable that the Pelicans may not be as high on them as other youngsters whose names are being tossed around.

The orange and blue will have a chance to land Davis this season, but they will have to get creative. If New Orleans doesn’t like the young players they currently have, they can dangle future first round picks in the deal.

Next. 2019 NBA Mock Draft: Post-Lottery Edition. dark

New York does have two extra first rounders from the Dallas Mavericks from the Kristaps Porzingis trade. Those extra picks could ultimately be what separates the Knicks’ package from the other teams.

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