Knicks sign veterans John Konchar & Drew Eubanks

All right, the championship offseason continues for the New York Knicks with more news coming late in the offseason. Two announced signings coming down, or reported signings I should say, coming down on Tuesday night. First up, the Knicks, and this was reported by Sean Serrano of ESPN, they are signing Jon Contra, our veteran wing, eight-year NBA veteran, to a deal. Now it has not been announced yet whether the deal is guaranteed or non-guaranteed. That will play a factor in how we discuss things, more on that later. And then, SNY's Ian Begley, friend of the show, he then reported that the Knicks are also signing Drew Eubanks to a deal. Now, spoke with our Stephan Bondy, who also reported this, and that deal for Drew Eubanks, a center, forward center, guy 6'10", veteran player there, that is a non-guaranteed deal. So, let's talk about all of as best as we can in totality around the New York Knicks. Now, a lot of fans know the Knicks, we talked about this on a couple episodes of New York Got Game, what would they do with one of the final guaranteed deals they could sign to round out their roster? A lot of us said, okay, yeah, they gotta go add for a center because we don't know if the Knicks want somebody to push Andre Drummond, do they trust Andre Drummond with the backup center role? A lot of questions around that there. The thought was the Knicks would sign a third center. When you hear the John Contrar signing and they get themselves another wing, it is interesting because the Knicks pretty much have a good amount of wings, but this is another wing with size 6'5", eight-year veteran, was traded from the Grizzlies to the Jazz in that Triple J deal last season, played 26 games with the Jazz, averaged just over six, just under six points, excuse me, and just under six rebounds a and three assists a game. When you look at John Contrar, he's a guy that shot 35% from three for his career, but he's known to be a good rebounder for his size, a very good cutter, and can also defend both backcourt positions. So that is something that the coach staff could like, and you're adding yourself another wing. And you might think to yourself, why would they do that? They have a lot of wings. One thing I would say for fans to consider is order some trade possibilities down the road if the Knicks want to try to maybe upgrade a position like backup center, right? Here's another guy who's a veteran on a potential, if the deal becomes guaranteed, veteran's minimum salary that you could then aggregate because the Knicks are still below the second apron, they can then aggregate salaries to go upgrade. So that's something to keep an eye on, especially in a situation where Deuce McBride, and we've talked about his contract extension, just talked about in the last episode with EJ Stewart, what goes on with that? Will they extend him? Is he a possible casualty to be traded? There's a lot of questions around that. So when you look at John Contrar, that could give you some cover and also flexibility, something the Knicks have been trying to do, keep their flexibility with this roster as they near the second apron and begin their championship title defense. Now, in terms of the Drew Eubanks of it all, he's an option I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in talking with my guy, Brian Fonseca, about a guy that Knicks could look at as a third center. We looked at the options, the free agent options for the Knicks to possibly sign somebody to do a third center roster spot here. And it was very limited. These were the kind of names you saw. You saw people like a John Contrar, right? There wasn't that many great options out there. Not saying that Eubanks is a bad option, but he's a guy that can come in here if he could make the team and possibly push Andre Drummond, right? The Knicks probably would profile for somebody a little bit better defensively. I think they would like to challenge Andre Drummond, but this is the best option they can get. Now, Drew Eubanks is a non-guaranteed deal, so he would have to make the roster out of training camp for his deal to be guaranteed, very similar to the kind of deal that Landry Shammock signed last season. Now, in terms of John Contrar, it'll be interesting to see whether his contract is guaranteed or non-guaranteed. I'll refer back to Ian Begley, who had a tweet, and he talked about the fact that John Contrar would not have came, this is Ian's words, would not have came to the Knicks if he didn't think that he had a good shot at making the team. So that tells me there's a shot to think he'd make the team. Maybe he was not necessarily guaranteed, but said, hey, you have a chance to make this, whether we're looking for a wing or a center, and we'll see how that all plays out. But the Knicks roster is starting to shape around at least the training camp roster, and there will be some guys fighting for a spot, or spots, I should say, which is something you should want if you're a fan at the end. Will the Knicks go and carry a third center? Will they add another center with one of the two-way contracts they signed? This will all be very interesting, but John Contrar, Drew Eubanks, two very interesting pieces that could be competing for a spot in training camp. Let me know in the comments what you think about it. We're going to talk about this more in the next episode of New York Got Game. We'll talk about these two guys, how they could fit, how they could not fit with this roster. It's all very interesting as the Knicks offseason, as they look to begin their title defense in just a few weeks, continues. So yeah, once again, let me know. What do you think of these moves? Let me know in the comments. What else should the Knicks do? Do you like this for their flexibility? A lot of things to discuss. We'll have more of that coming up on New York Got Game.