New York Knicks: 3 free agents to take a flyer on

1. Harry Giles

Jayson Tatum told Bill Simmons in 2018 that the only high school player he felt could’ve been better than him was his former Duke teammate, Harry Giles. Tatum recalls that Giles didn’t play a single high school game but was still the No. 1 overall recruit.

Injuries have been an unfortunate theme for Giles’ career. He appeared in 26 games at Duke but averaged just 11.5 minutes, and he’s already missed 132 NBA games (including his entire rookie season) in less than three full seasons.

His time with the Sacramento Kings is probably over. The Kings sealed his fate when they declined his team option for next season. This means the big man will be an unrestricted free agent and can sign wherever he wants.

That’s excellent news for the Knicks because Giles is precisely the kind of player this team should take a flyer on. He just turned 22 years old in April and probably won’t require more than a one-year deal.

Let’s start with some offense. Giles had a 23.3 percent frequency rate in running post-ups last season. Sure, he was only in the 16th percentile of efficiency, but as a rookie, it’s still encouraging to see him running a taboo play so frequently.

Especially when he’s able to do things like this. Sorry, Mitch.

Giles moves well without the ball on cuts, pick and rolls, and in the fast break.

While he’s improved his field goal percentage at the rim to 75 percent this season, Giles would benefit from more shots in the restricted area.

More shots like these would be a good thing.

Oh yeah, and he can do this.

If you’re not a Harry Giles fan yet, I’ll keep going.

Giles is a good passer. He was in the 86th percentile of assist percentage for bigs last season and the 79th percentile this season.

He’s developed especially good chemistry with Bogdan Bogdanovic. According to NBA.com, Giles assisted on 19 Bogdanovic field goals while Bogdanovic assisted on 32 of Giles’ makes.

Giles has attempted six 3-pointers in his entire NBA career and missed all of them.

Right now, he is extremely reliant on the mid-range game. According to Cleaning the Glass, Giles attempted 53 percent of his shots from the mid-range this season (99th percentile) and 49 percent last season (97th percentile).

Giles is shooting 44 percent on long mid-range shots this season. CTG defines that as shots outside of 14 feet but inside the 3-point line.

His improvement at the free-throw line this season is another positive sign. I’m not saying Giles will ever be a knockdown shooter, but he has the potential to move beyond the long-two stage.

Giles is behind Richaun Holmes and Marvin Bagley on the depth chart. There isn’t room for all three of those players in Sacramento, but the New York Knicks should welcome Giles with open arms.