Should The Knicks Sign A Center Now Or Wait? | NY Got Game

What's good everybody? Welcome back to another edition of New York Hockey. I'm your guy Dexter Henry with my guy Brian Fonseca here. The Knicks offseason continues to move but we are now unbelievably we're in September. It just feels like it was June 13th and the Knicks won the championship but we are here getting closer to the start of training camp media day. All that stuff is right around the corner and we still are looking at this Knicks team Brian who has an open roster spot right now. We've been talking about this for a while in terms of what the Knicks can do and a lot of this is going to come with a third center because I think that's what the Knicks likely will do with their third roster spot. How they go about things with this roster spot will be interesting. Will they sign somebody before training camp to that guaranteed contract? Will they sign some players to some non-guaranteed contracts and have them battle it out for a guaranteed contract? That could be really interesting to see what they could do. As of the time we were recording this the Knicks have 13 players on standard contracts meaning technically they have two open spots. Just so fans understand they must eventually add a 14th player but they could leave their 15th spot on the roster vacant and they could add a prorated minimum contract or use 10-day deals later. The other thing to note here the Knicks are approximately 3.3 million dollars below the second apron which we all know here the Knicks would like to stay below the second apron. So what we are going to try to answer on this episode is very clear. Should the Knicks sign a center now and by now I mean before the start of training camp or should they wait for a better one to become available? That is the real question here when you look at this spot as you go through the season. So I want to let everybody know this. I hit up Brian on the fact that we're going to talk about this and I said to Brian hey man I'm out here looking at some of this free agent list right looking looking at some candidates out here and I sent Brian a short list which we're going to get to. I sent him a short list and said hey maybe these some of the players we should look at some of the free agents that are out there and Brian's response to me was please say that I'll say I don't make you look it up. I wanted to be accurate here. I remember exactly what you said to me. Word for word. Word for word. I remember exactly what you said to me and I didn't need to hear Brian's reverse text. There has to be more centers dot dot dot dot dot dot dot right question mark and you're like I searched I thought the same thing this is it there's more there I mean there are more and we'll get to that but this list is not um inspiring so I just want to understand Knicks fans no disrespect to anyone on the list no disrespect to anyone on the list for what we're talking about if we're looking at this list and you're expecting to hear these names and jump for joy I understand why you would not we're going to try to discuss what we might think is the best of this crop so these are the crop of unrestricted free agents that I've looked at for the Knicks and we're going to talk about six players here okay that possibly could sign a deal to be the Knicks third string center and I'm sure others will come up there's some other names too that I actually haven't told I have some honorable mention names for Brian this look if there's a list that needed honorable mentions I mean everybody might be honorable mention if you're being honest here but here's the names Kelly Olenek Maxie Kleber okay Mason Plumlee okay Kevin Love I sense a trend here there's clearly a trend with the first four names and now the train switches Dwight Powell Bismack Biombo okay those are my six centers that I am looking at as unrestricted free agents that the Knicks could sign or maybe they want to wait and let's say later I will yeah you you you could rush into this it's anyone that it's all gonna rush yeah yeah that's the thing I think because this list is uninspiring I don't think if you're if you're watching this is there legitimately like I don't even mean to sound dismissive but is there any one of those six guys that you think the Knicks should run to sign by the end of this episode like any of them feel free to let us know in the comments I I don't let's let's take it a couple of guys were on rosters last year never played actually half the list was yeah let's take one by one yeah and I had him at the top of this list and I guess I could see this is a ranking I didn't really rank this okay but I could see where if you're looking at because we're all right let's talk about Kelly Olynyk no let's let's talk about Kelly Olynyk solid role player at his peak like very solid role player I speak he's not at his peak anymore I want to talk let's try to talk about what people can add to the roster yeah and then what your concern is with them on the roster okay for me what does Kelly Olynyk add for you as you said at his peak good really good role player right vibes man ain't nobody here for the vibes no one's here for that but I hear you you can shoot a little bit absolutely not last season but historically yes not underrated passer sneaky good passer yes sneaky good passer yeah we saw some of that in in Miami, Utah and Detroit particularly the value if you're the Knicks in terms of somebody that can I also want to put a let's put a pin in this here folks because Brian and I have also talked about what we would do this doesn't need this doesn't need to be a long segment no no but what I'm going to say is what we also are looking for and what we are hoping for out of the Knicks signing their 14th player most likely a center is this somebody that can push Andre Trump that is part of the that should be the goal that should be the goal if you're the front office that should be your goal your objective this year can't somebody your objective as a front office is to sign somebody who can push this guy same reason where if you you have a clear starting quarterback your backup you're like you want to bring in somebody who's going to push them be it a veteran be somebody young whatever but you just want competition there because your starting quarterback goes down you need to like who you have behind them otherwise so look you can shoot it gives you something with the passing and if you're looking at it if he even pushed for the backup position the number two center position he can give you a little bit of a different look at senate yeah right it's a different look he's a stretch big through and through like he's never been an amazing rebounder ding ding ding that's a concern there you go what's the other concern brian you're not you're not getting any rim protection with mr olytic yeah that does not happen where you've seen him thrive before for example uh in boston look at some of the guys he played with defensively that could cover up be it marcus smart on the perimeter be it you had tatum and brown early version of tatum and actually you didn't have tatum yet you had just jaylen brown as a rookie um but you had also at the time jared selinger who was productive you have to remember what that team was uh back in 2016 17 and even before that but like you had some productive players around and you had a system in miami obviously you had a system you also had bam in a bio next to him um who was already like in those early stages like elite as soon as he began starting and you had hassan white say before that then in houston it didn't matter because they were just tanking and he put up stupid numbers but like they had traded victor oladipo they traded james harden like it didn't matter at that point detroit was short-lived and then in utah they weren't really playing for anything and then in toronto you know you have scotty barnes jacob hurdle um but you you had and you had a team that you know competitive like they're always competitive toronto never really like tanks at this point they're just always going to be competitive um and then last year he was with the spurs he was in their system he didn't really play though like he averaged less than 10 minutes fewer than 10 minutes a game played basically half the season didn't really get off the bench like that in the playoffs as we saw we didn't really see him much in the finals so i just wouldn't be expecting a ton here he's an offensive player through and through but he's always been better as a four or or if he's a five next to a smaller four who can guard up like a scotty barnes or a bam at a bio um or if he's a four like it's because you have a different center like he's somebody you actually less so today and more so in yesteryear you want him to play with an andre drummond because of what because of the contrasting style and he's right like is does it mix if you stagger him with carl anthony towns no with me you still have mitchell robinson you can play him in line maybe but he didn't play with the spurs and you probably wouldn't play him much if you let me put like this if you can play that man that's a victim on miyama i don't think he's gonna be playing fair much here yeah right okay so that's our thoughts in kelly olynyk maxie kleber now this is a player when he was good in theory you could talk about some of the things he could bring yeah at his healthiest he gave you some defensive versatility he was kind of kelly olynyk with defense yo with better defense yeah yeah you know what that's really good he was kelly olynyk with better defense gave you the floor space and could shoot the three yeah moved his feet a lot better yeah he couldn't do much with the ball like kelly olynyk could like kelly olynyk could actually low-key like put the ball on the floor a little bit and as a playmaker too like max was giving you that but he was kind of a offensively a three and d center but there was d there there was defense there with maxie kleber that you actually could trust at his peak now physically this man has had some issues he'll be 35 in january he'll be 35 and you know what he shot from three last season i know because it's in front of me but yeah yeah it's 23 guys 23 from three 26 and a half before that hasn't broken 35 since 2020 2021 so this is why we say at his peak um the peak was kind of done half decade ago just about look the close to that did you get on this list sometimes you got a name and there was a track record of you doing something but the recent track record isn't good i'm just this this ain't even that deep for me this is a hard no yeah no no no no no no i i'd rather i'd rather kelly olenek not even close yeah yeah not even close yeah even though it's not at all mitchell robinson but like i i think he can play a little bit maxie kleber you know actually averaged more minutes last year but the minutes weren't awesome yeah i'm i'm passing on maxie kleber and the shooting has just not been there yeah the last couple years so i'm good uh keeping it moving mason plumbly okay uh shout out to mace i like mace a lot my time when i used to cover the nets right you had him early mace good dude always was a good interview here's what you know you're getting with mason plumbing and this is a skill folks i know people might laugh at this he's an excellent screener excellent excellent screen there's also not a bad passer not a bad especially outlet passing yeah very good yeah yeah um i know someone watching this right now is really like you know really yeah like yo this is where we are this is where we are this is for y'all man this is for y'all this is a service this is what teams are thinking about right when they're going through this at this point this is we'll get us to our second part of a different list that we're going to look at but he's a decent passer um but i think where he's at in his career right 36 36 that's all right he'll be 37 he can add those things kind of but he kind of came at this point as are you emergency guy yes because he played 20 games last year he was on two teams so he's he's emergency are you worried that the hornets had him and were basically like we're good when they have two young centers now two young centers they were trying to play obviously and they ended up playing i think pj hall some two-way minutes at center on two-way contract i'm concerned to answer your question yes right like yeah because they're like they're like yo we don't even want you in an emergency yeah so if the hornets and his previous thing with the hornets was good it was also a few years ago years ago but if the hornets don't want you in an emergency can the defending champion nicks right do they want you in an emergency and you just gotta look he's a guy who doesn't space the floor no not so stylistically i think he actually makes the most sense but i i think kelly olynyk's a better player right now i agree but he's not like this amazing vertical threat or something brings amazing defense the rebounding still good the pass is still good excellent screens the peak version of him will be perfect like it'd be perfect this is not what we are but this but yeah if it was the peak version of him he'd be on the team right now yeah so mason plumbly this is stuff you got to go through i know some of you guys are gonna see these names not consider the age or what recently has been going on but this is what teams are looking at or this is what leon rose is looking at you might see the names and be like what monty jones always say he's still in the league like we're probably that might be the title of this episode yes he's still in the league yeah well i would tell you that the next person we'll get to is a is a name a former all-star um that you might be my favorite really if it's who i'm thinking of kevin love yeah i mean listen he's not giving you much defensively you think but i have a recent track record of him at least being able to do still good outlet passer yeah elite vibes guy can still rebound if you say vibes one more time can still rebound can still shoot like i don't know how much he can play but i feel like he could play a little bit more than he did last year because i'm watching him i'm like all right like he's clearly at the end but given the list we're talking about i i'm putting kevin love at number one so far what does he do for the next step that really helps them in that role the thing is he gonna push andre drummond i mean how much how much better do you think andre drummond is right now than kevin love defensively a little bit better sure yes yeah yeah and that's kind of what i'm really worried about here because andre drummond fair yeah that's what i'm really worried about here withdrawing your honor yeah but i guess my other thing when i talk about defensively just to be clear for people is when i look at kevin love now there was a world in time at his peak when he still has a really good small ball five yeah i mean if even in miami they try that now but again next to bam coincidentally with right you can get away with that right because he's better as a power forward next to carl anthony towns if you're doing this if you're staggering them two together that's yeah you don't want that and and what you have to think about is like yes i'd rather have andre drummond guard pick a role at the level because they're going to be like come here all the time with whoever i still don't love it i like it better than having love but i i still don't like it yeah but given what we're talking about it is what it is i mean but but i i think kevin love like over olenek and plumbly and uh who else did we just talk about before that doesn't even matter kleber i would put i would put kelly olenek above in that list right now but i also i mean kevin love in that list right now but i also don't think you have to sign him right away he's just he's just the guy that i think today is the best player of the guys we've talked about so far but to your point how much how much does he push andre drummond i don't know i think he can a little bit but i don't know i don't think he does that much i still think andre drummond's a better option yeah but i hear what you're saying i at least have a little bit of a recent sample size of seeing him on a competitive team but that was two three years ago and he's 37 yeah he'll actually be 38 this week happy early birthday kevin love yeah i don't think that's a running rush rushing uh moving on dwight powell you want to talk about players that are probably past it that are definitely past it i mean he had a lifetime contract in dallas for a while and then dallas is now dallas is like yeah you know what i think i think that's it he's tried to add a three-point shot you want to know how that's going he's a sneaky like the age caught up to me that i didn't realize he was 35 and i was like oh because he got into the league a little older remember he had he had a brief cup of coffee with the celtics for five games and then dallas made him like a lifetime he has 763 career games with the mavericks in his career um here's the career in his career wow right bad english by me um if you want somebody that's more of a vertical threat the rim running threat then he is that guy for you good decent i'm not saying he's an excellent option to that i'm just saying that's part of his game yeah he's gonna rim run you can finish around the rim for sure he's gonna give he's gonna screen well listen look this is bad because this is what yeah you have like if i'm his agent how am i how am i selling this what i'm selling to you is a veteran experience yo this is what i'm saying hey man give him a shot because you know what you know how you say this in corporate speak he's familiar with a professional role that's what you say he's familiar being a professional there is value i don't mean this in any kind of joke there's value in being a professional yes but here's the problem and not being a distraction kind of like andre drummond the offense is limited yeah right but andre drummond is giving you more like i think i think andre drummond and kevin love is closer than andre drummond and dwight powell i think andre drummond is still better than everyone we've talked about it's the reason he's on the team right now and at least with kevin love you get a better look a different look i should say a better different look somebody could space a four for you yeah like somebody who's been on a lot of winning teams multiple has a title and has been on a few finals teams professional professional in the sporting role dwight powell's been in an nba finals um not too long ago although he played a very minimal role in that final did he even play in the finals hold on let me ask you look i don't remember if he did actually play because he would he played daniel gafford and derrick lively yeah a little bit yeah um 16 total minutes in three appearances of the five blowouts probably just blogs yeah i think we can move on uh last one on the list i had that inspired brian bismack biambo the mac the mac another bowie jonesism um look he's gonna be physical yo three of these dudes were our teammates last year none of them played and none of them played in the spurt with the spurs i know i know biambo is like actually until last year was kind of fun in an emergency because it's like man maybe maybe in 14 minutes he'll give you three points in eight rebounds but i last year now 34 by the way just turned out happy belated now at his peak he was really good defensive not really good solid solid yeah but a really good rebounder especially for size yeah so in theory seven seven foot six wingspan despite being six foot eight probably is easily the best rim protector that we've said on this list i mean yeah he's probably the only guy who's not a negative defender right that's so if you're juggling with somebody to give you some physicality rebound but is he really pushing andre drummond i just don't know how much he can play that's the problem like kevin loves played the most of these guys recently yeah so i'm like okay i could put them out there at least because i think people trust the shooting still and the value can give you in a different look the problem is like and he can still rebound a bit but can you play playoff minutes but it matters that's the question is he really a center to that kind of has no i say no right i say no yeah and it's a different stylistic thing beyond bow stylistically like in theory if this was coming off of the 24 25 season it would be beyond bow easily because he actually played an average five and five in very limited time and he was you know picked up off of you know free agency i think during the season and what have you but he just didn't play much and he hasn't played much in recent years but like stylistically he'd be the guy because it's like all right there's some measure of rebounding here there's definitely defense there's maybe switchability but like he's he's older and i don't know if he could still do those things and the spurs didn't really let us find out because he was on the bench basically all year so yeah this is why folks this list i had sent to brian and it's not necessarily now yeah i i still let me dig a little deeper i have two names that i'll bring up after that would be trade related which i'm sure people want to get to um these are honorable mentions then we're going to get we're also going to get to some guys a couple guys who could possibly be cut here and it's i think the expansion keep an eye on because that's actually think what should be the mix i think are going to really look at what happens when guys get in the training camp does somebody get cut like nfl teams are doing right now right are they cut before there's somebody that can jump on they're going to be some value in some guys there just because some guys some rosters some teams excuse me have 16 17 guys already signed some players are going to get cut and we'll get to a couple of those later okay here we go this is also there's one name that i actually hope i wonder okay let's see xavier tillman that's the that's the one top my list oh i had it top my list okay my honorable mentions xavier tillman senior and i said of note this will be a brian fonseca favorite yo but like if i if i may if i may act as xavier tillman's agent briefly like and i know it hasn't been great the last couple years but when he plays like he can be productive he's just been in boston where there's there's obvious guys in front of him they preferred kata for good reason um if you saw him in fever world cup qualifiers this past week jesus christ um he led portugal to beat spain in a game also which is impressive yeah portuguese basketballs um um xavier tillman was also behind garza you know porzingis they had uh and then charlotte he ran into the same thing plumbly ran into where it's like well you're here to be a vet whatever whatever he's 27 years old 27 like i he's an energy big he's an undersized energy big by undersized i mean maybe six eight but he's an energy big where in theory and with him it's like all right i actually think there could be something there because of the age like i understand he's already moved around the league a bunch but he was decent in memphis not terribly long ago and in boston when he played like he wasn't god awful i'm sure celtics fans are not crying their eyes out that he's not with the team anymore but i think given the list we just gave you you can do a lot worse i think you can't do a lot worse than him age was a factor for me him being out of a mention yeah the size was probably the demerit for me sure and that he's only six eight yeah but if you're looking for a key thing that he can do that's probably better than anybody on the other list i had rebounded not even that i think his defensive switchability is better than most of those centers you've had here right like just in terms of you get switched on a guy you put him in a situation could he play could he give you five or six playoff minutes where he's not gonna mess it up for you defensively yeah like the only the only thing is because they can't sign him now because he signed to the team in turkey in june so i do wonder if he has an out in his contract you always have to look this is what i looked at i assumed that he would there's a pathway back from to the nba yeah but a lot of guys is it's it's it's not like a thing that's widely reported i know for example kendrick nunn is in greece right now he's he has no nba out until i believe 2027 2028 like he's locked in there but they're also paying him a lot but why also i'm glad you brought that up because why also put him on this list b is if there is that out he's a guy you might even look at later into the season right enough not some guys might have might have the ability where you can't get out of the until maybe february like or if you sign now he didn't sign to china but if you sign to china the season tends to end in like march or so whatever and this happened actually with the knicks with jr smith where he couldn't leave until the season was done and then he came to the knicks this is the year before he won six man of the year then they had him and then you know what happened there so it's it's tricky with that but like yo if he has a good season in turkey or and has an nba out and you can get him later in the year like we'll see and also like turkey's league is not like he's it's not bad league at all um i need to see if the team is going to be playing in uh euro league or champions league or any of those things uh so because that's going to be interesting but yeah i got another name for you drew you guys it's fine you know um i i look i don't know what to do with guys who were just with the kings yeah but he could he's the kind of guy this is also me looking at opportunity could he come in and say yeah i'll take this third center role that's another thing oh he would yes yes it's the mindset of like would i come in and play in this role i could see that as being more one of the cleaner fits for that i'll be the third center option i could kind of see that um he's gonna give you energy decent finisher around the rim um look look he's fine insurance for drumming he's fine like like if you told me drew eubanks was the insurance am i excited about it like ideally i like want somebody younger with upside that's what i would want with him he is younger he is younger does he have that 28 29 upside defensive profile like no so this is but this is why he and xavi told me senior were at top of the list because they're a little younger they're not gonna hurt you enough defensively and they'll be fine in fact i might like them better than some of the other guys yes yeah i would i would just because of age age i put some of the other guys because of name people might recognize them a little bit more so that's it here's another guy i mentioned i'll play with the hawks last year nafali dante oh i thought you were gonna say tony bradley tony bradley for you tony bradley is on this list too tony bradley is on the list too as i mentioned listen so nafali dante and tony bradley both play for the hawks they are both on the honorable mention list nafali i mean he just couldn't he couldn't see the floor at all he played yeah which concerns me yeah like there's but he'd be willing to compete for roster spot correct because like he's only played eight nba games but that's but when you're trying to invite guys for a shot at this this has to factor in yes who is going to come and compete for a roster spot sign a non-guaranteed deal and try for it like we got to look at it this way the third center position very likely will be like the mix last guard spot they were looking for last year with garrison matthews and landry shaman and malcolm brogdon this is likely what the third center position is going to be this year so you've got to look for some guys that might be willing last chance tony bradley your boy might be last chance too right like last chance center spot this is kind of what it is now bradley also 28 so another younger option and the joke that i make with tony bradley all the time is get that pension year 10 amen would be this season tony bradley's tony bradley's motivated i'm never nix fans are familiar because you saw him in the hawk series solving the pastry series and one of the one of carlisle's adjustments in the pastry series was yo thomas bryant i need to put you on ice for a little bit we got to go to tony bradley like you're laughing but tony bradley stayed ready right that day tony he was ready um i think i think that's actually the nickname of a producer on the leopard show i think that with tony bradley who played 41 games last season but also did we saw him in the playoffs we saw him play real playoff minutes i mean he's one of the better guys on this list it's like i'm more intrigued by him than other guys because i'm like all right you know how to screen know how to roll you can rebound a little bit you can finish around the rim it's kind of all you're looking for um i'm at i'm not mad at it and he again there's not much upside there kind of knows low usage emergency break glass case emergency guy understands the role but the way you would use him is is literally like how rick carlisle did with indiana it's like if thomas bryant doesn't have it we go to tony bradley if andre drummond doesn't have it you go to tony bradley like that's it but see that's it fans are gonna want somebody that can push yes i'm sure to not have he's not that guy i'm sure but there's not that many options for that guy right all right a couple other ones for you but i'm very intrigued to see your i'm gonna be before i say this name this is a complete you have to believe in the upside swing and you have to okay james weisman oh he's healthy he's healthy now right remember he had supposedly a serious injury before um 25 so supposedly the heat were interested in him before they ended up getting nick richards who would have been everyone's number one on this list i have my yes but now we don't but but nick richards but what i had i told you before he signed i'm like they had him working out in heat gear when he wasn't even on the team i think there's some people gonna listen to this and be like man james weisman get to the flowers i'm young i have concerns beside the health that from when we saw him on the court the thing to me about james weisman i watched him on the court particularly his early time in gold state and that i didn't see get that much better defensive awareness but defensive awareness but correct the next next thing i time for lack of a defensive awareness right yeah you're right but he is not like i'm giving him a camp invite like i need to i i'm willing to see because he this is the thing you do with like there's a thing you do with a lot of different athletes who like they've been around they were drafted so high in the draft position especially at that size it's just gonna it's gonna give you a career until the wheels fall all the way off we saw i'm not saying he's the sheep the beat but they were both picked second overall james weisman is 25 or so so i'm like can can a backup center be in there somewhere like the way we talked about marvin bagley he figured out a way to salvage his career despite being picked very high and has become a legitimately productive role player he hasn't played the most meaningful basketball as of late but he's been productive and he keeps finding his way onto teams and earning money so on and so forth like weisman to me even though it just seems easy would be the most interesting name of the guys we're talking about because is there a backup center in there for somebody who several years ago was the number two overall pick and it's still 25 and it's physical tools the issues are the health the defensive awareness the fact that he hasn't put it together yet and just bounced around and he's only played five games in two years if the defensive word has somehow got better and there is a backup center in there like you said then he's the kind of he's got the kind of profile where he could push an audrey trump yes but and the youth just the youth and and that but he's got to show me that yeah the defensive awareness is my big concern would i give him a training camp invite hundred percent that there's intrigue that's why i said what i said before i said it this is the upside swing of the upside swings i would not sign him today would i give him an invite to camp absolutely i would do that has mike brown reached the point where you're like give him james weisman and maybe he can figure it out look man if i'm mike brown and i talk to james weisman let's say he comes into camp i'm gonna sit here and tell him how about hey man look right here on the bench there's a kid we just took with the 51st overall pick last year he came in he worked his ass off that's muhammad diawara things haven't gone well for you career you're gonna you want to earn this you're gonna have to come here and earn this i think mike i feel confident that mike brown would tell him the right things i think they're telling the right thing whether it's motivated or not or whether he actually applies that that is another thing again i you know me i don't think coaching just like you push this button and the players go here no but i do think that james weisman if he's truly ready to be coached and be part of a championship culture and really wants it the opportunity could be there for him it's about what can he do with it i'm gonna give you one more name not a lot of upside here sure uh stretch five alternatives well i'll say here dario sarge i don't know how much is left i don't know how much is left there that's he's in that love a type you know he's got some size because he's also he's also gonna be he's another one in the xavier tillman situation where he's gonna be in turkey um yep so i'm wondering i know i looked i looked at this too i'm also looking at guys that maybe if they don't even come at the start of season could they end up getting them down to right no because yeah because again this might not be a thing you could address right away um i got i can't like stylistically i don't see it it was rough in denver two years ago i just they load that signing out there they did not if you want to talk about peaks like he has one of the better peaks that the guys were talking about i also don't think like like stylistically though it's not really what i'm looking for i'll get kevin love if i'm trying to get somebody in that vein so to speak you know what i mean probably fits you that are offensive yeah like i probably even would go kelly olenek at this point damn what a fall from daris out she's a two-year deal a couple years ago with denver and that's it okay here's where i wanted to go because we talked about looking at possible cuts guys who can get cuts on teams one day i'm gonna start with this name first and i understand everybody's gonna hear this and say to me oh well dex the knicks already had some potential dealings with him this summer and this isn't gonna happen musa cc here's why i'm bringing this up and i think it's worth keeping on your watch list folks it's a long shot but i would keep my eye on it right now we know the whole situation nicks offered him a two-year 4.7 million dollar offer sheet uh cc is a restricted free agent dallas matched that right now the thing with this is the knicks they can't trade for him because people are going to look for that right because well they can't trade for him for a year because of the offer sheet being matched and in general he's he has a trade restriction until december 15th right but but if dallas were to waive him the knicks could then sign him right so this is possible now you're probably saying dex well why why would the mavs do that they just signed him to a two-year 4.7 million dollar deal well the mavericks they currently have 15 standard contract players on the roster i'm looking at um that was the latest roster stuff i said cc he cleared his first contract guarantee date which was september 1st okay just the first guarantee date of his contract that's at about just over a million yep that he's guaranteed okay 1.1 out of 2.2 almost the remainder of his salary becomes guaranteed on october 1st right right that's a very interesting date to keep in mind now the mavericks also still have not signed their first round pick they still could do that are they going to keep guys would they cut they have a bunch of centers on their roster will they keep cc will they not keep cc i don't know it would make sense for them to keep him considering they signed him and they match this deal but they may also just say okay we want to keep our first round pick it's very rare that we haven't seen a first round pick i think it's stashed since 2020 right with it for a team it's very rare to do it for them to get to this late in off season and then just stash them and not sign them yeah um there's been no announcement in that so there's a possibility there's a chance um that this could happen the mavericks could have 16 17 signings by the time we get to training camp so it'll be interesting this is also why they bought out klay thompson yep all i'm saying is i don't think it's likely especially if this gets past october 1st but it's something to keep an eye on yeah especially if cc doesn't think early in training camp he's not going to get playing time now again he gets away the knicks could jump all on that knicks runoff this man i think they they the contract is this way because they signed up to it because they probably are like well we might be able to get you down the road because this contract is fully guaranteed october 1st as you mentioned and then if this goes on for longer his contract is not guaranteed next season the knicks structured it that way because this is what they do and basically it doesn't become fully guaranteed until january 10th of 2028 so he goes into next year with a non-guaranteed deal anyway and that's to make it basically halfway through the season so that his deal can become fully guaranteed that's 2.5 million almost 2.6 million so look i'm not gonna make a huge deal out of this i'm not gonna say like the knicks have to wait this out for musashi say to make a decision but i mean i feel like the contract was intentional to see and restricted restricted for agency contracts to be clear are always intentional so if dallas does part ways with them before october 1st we're gonna know why and then this could be why the knicks have been waiting to fill that spot all along to begin with i'm all i'm saying is keep your eye on that it might not be over yeah and the knicks this is why i also think the knicks are not in any rush to sign a third center this moves to cc part of it matters too yeah now the other guy i got to think is worth monitoring is once a nick always a nick shout out to jericho sims um wow wow yeah jericho sims i think is worth monitoring this is gonna be scouring teams and rosters now milwaukee we just talked about dallas brian they have 17 standard contract players on their roster their front court is really crowded now jericho sims did exercise his 2.8 million dollar player option last season where he averaged five points five and a half boards a game um over 67 games last season i wouldn't say that he's likely a cut but keep an eye that front croaker rotation is crowded he could then come to the knicks as somebody that's reasonably inexpensive inexpensive has been in the third center role before um he's an athletic center was he the perfect center when he was with the knicks no but you might want to see how much his game has grown he's already familiar with the organization you know about him being a vertical threat um he's played with some of the guys already so the familiarity i think um matters he's a guy i just think if you're the knicks he could make if milwaukee were to release him and i actually think if he because he had his issues on defense if he was a little if he's grown any defensively then he's also in that kind of profile that could push drumming a little bit now who would i like better musa sisay or jericho sims i'm going with musa sisay just because defensive profile is just much much better there but i do think jericho sims is a guy to monitor and i say all this to say brian i think no matter what you do when you look at all this stuff you look at these potential cuts you look at some of the young guys on the honorable mention list the nixon will be playing the nixon playing a waiting game here yeah and they should and and the waiting game might even evolve further into looking at potential guys they can trade for here later in the season right i think that is actually to me be honest the more the most likely path if the knicks don't get some young guy that gets cut that fits the profile of what they think can work with them to bring in for training camp i still think it's more likely maybe they sign somebody to a non-guaranteed deal at the end of training camp or that gets guaranteed and somebody can release and then pick up somebody else down the road or trade for i think that what the knicks are going to do is keep all their options open keep their flexibility open for as long as they can and that's why they're not going to be in a rush to do this today that's not going to happen and just to hit a couple straight candidates before we get out of here uh one i don't think they're trading for anybody now no because that would be a commitment that they don't need they want the flexibility yeah they don't want there's no reason to do that right now i think this can be relevant down the line though uh isaiah jackson being one who i remember with the pacers little undersized but just played bigger than he is and also the clippers need to get all the draft capital they can and it's got six second round picks yeah yeah you ain't getting the first for isaiah jackson but seven million this year 6.4 next year so descending contract if he has a strong uh first half of the year you have to figure out how to you know money yeah that you know this this that becomes an uncomfortable conversation we'll get to that we'll kick that down the road okay that's that's a weird one um gogopatase is very unlikely he would be like number one with the bullet maybe on this entire list outside of like if you see who we've talked about uh before in previous episodes and maybe who's a cc even if you're if you care about the youth but this is unlikely too because one he'll still play in orlando i'm not sure he's rushing to deal with nicks right now but wendell carter jr is there they brought back nikola vucevic we'll see how that goes and how well they plan they drafted isaiah nelson in the second round but gogopatase is an expiring contract of 7.6 million he is like the quintessential to me a third string center who can be a backup center though i agree um i think he's better than the role he has had in his career so far um but that's another one where the number makes it tricky and that's probably a february conversation like if orlando becomes one of the couple east teams which is spiraling because not everyone in the east could be good even though everyone in the east looks good then maybe maybe that's something to revisit and then the last name which is maybe the most interesting one to me personally because there actually is an argument for how much is he going to fit on this team long term is clincapella he's at seven million this year 7.3 million next year yeah yeah so it's two years that's the thing so it'll be a real commitment like this these are trade contenders in february to be clear this is like the scenario is andre drummond can't play anymore like it's it ended fast it's a wrap and you need to do something else and clincapella is older and not the same as he was but stylistically i think more along the lines of what you'd be looking for and if if the hole at backup center is glaring he's a guy that i would look at too as is goga as is isaiah jackson he's at seven million two all these guys tend to be at like seven million all three of the guys i just mentioned were so it's difficult there because it's like you have pacom and you have tata colec that's still short you don't want to give up do so it's like how do you make how do you make that work and it all depends on how dire is this in february that's the key how bad like like that's why they got jose to begin with it's like yo backup point guard is a problem and then you saw what happened there are pathways to get there and we will definitely get to more of that down the road but let us know what you think about some of these options with the mix here it's a vest was not the most inspiring list and you know help us answer the question what do you think should the mix sign a central now or should they wait for a better one to become available that is the real question i personally think the mix are going to wait on this yeah i think they're going to be very patient on this i think they're going to look at options and i think some better options that we even have on this list may actually eventually present themselves or they might have been on this list maybe as well as he said who knows i think the mix let's just say they were very crafty when they signed that contract this is the word i would use they've been crafty with a lot of contracts over the last few years we will see but either way listen i know we want some everybody wants tomorrow yesterday but i think the nicks are going to be very patient with this and see how this all plays out we'll see how it all plays out the nicks have time they do not have to sign the center today they do have time but i think it's a good option becomes available then they will jump on that as they should that's going to do it for this edition of new york got game that is my guy brian fonseca i'm dexter henry we'll catch you next time on another edition of new york and thanks for watching new york got game