The Knicks are having a point guard party, and everyone’s invited

Behold the point-guard-apalooza of the never-ending 2020 offseason. The New York Knicks’ offseason is seven months old already, despite the NBA’s offseason being yet to start. We’re in a transaction moratorium, for now, burying all memories of a bizarre bubble postseason deep in the dusty corners of our skulls, in the box marked 2020, never to be opened again. The Knicks — shockingly — need a point guard. Of course they do. It is written into the bylaws of Madison Square Garden. Every offseason, we drearily declare the latest set of footprints in the sands of Knick point guard history to be as fleeting and inadequate as the last. And we cast our eyes towards the pools of free agency and the draft and the trade market for a replacement. Usually it’s slim pickings. But this year, it’s a little different.

It’s different because, for the first time this century, the Knicks are in a position to explore all avenues. There’s cap space to play with, handfuls of draft picks and young players to package in a trade, and three bites at the apple in the upcoming NBA Draft. This has never happened before. Really, the franchise’s perpetual point guard problem has remained a problem in part because, in most seasons, two of these three routes to acquire an answer are unavailable. Couple this with a new front office, led by first-time executive Leon Rose — who, like all new executives, will want to get straight to work remodeling the roster — and voila: the perfect storm of point guard possibilities.

The Knicks have been linked to approximately 400 percent of available human point guards already, and we have months before the start of next season. The sources are positively giddy, simultaneously swept up in this hallucination of a year, and famished for NBA clicks in the season that refuses to end. Unshackled from the boring humdrum norms of what is even remotely realistic, and limited only by what is theoretically possible, the sources are singing all the hits. 

You can’t say the Knicks aren’t doing their due diligence. They have all bases covered. Every type of point guard, in every available flavor. Take your over the hill has-beens, we have them all: Chris Paul (All-NBA), Russell Westbrook (All-Star), Mike Conley (almost-All-Star), Rajon Rondo (playoffs only), and DJ Augustin (home brand competence). Then you’ve got the token free agency splash in Fred VanVleet (Mr. Middle Ground). The overseas wildcard in Facundo Campazzo (the Magician). The in-house projects: Elfrid Payton (home brand incompetence), Dennis Smith Jr. (the broken lotto pick) and Frank Ntilikina (the fan favorite).

That’s 10 possible point guards, if you’re keeping count. Add to that the handful of prospects in a point guard-heavy draft lottery — LaMelo Ball, Killian Hayes, Kira Lewis Jr., Cole Anthony, Tyrese Haliburton — who have been linked to the Knicks, and that’s 15(!) potential floor generals who could suit up in orange and blue on opening night next season. This isn’t even counting the unheralded (but no less intriguing) non-lottery prospect pool, including (but not limited to) Grant Riller, Malachi Flynn, and Tre Jones. Leon Rose and his band of front office avengers officially have fingers in all the point guard pies.

The novelty, as a franchise, of having so much choice at point guard — a position that for so long has been a hex, a positional black-hole, an unrelenting headache — is only fueling the weight of Rose and Co.’s eventual decision. This is a choice a decade, maybe two decades, in the making. It’s all the heavier for the time fans have spent yearning for an answer. If the new braintrust can get it right, it will be a symbolic split from the calamities of seasons past, and a welcome answer to the problem that has for so long dogged and defined the franchise’s failures.

There have been so many stop-gaps and reclamation projects and journeyman. Everyone has their least favorite New York Knick point guard. Maybe it’s Jose Calderon, Toney Douglas, or Brandon Jennings? Maybe you’re more of a Mike Bibby, Baron Davis, or Derrick Rose type? The list is endless. And it has kept growing (Jarrett Jack), and growing (Trey Burke), and growing (Emmanuel Mudiay). Kind of like rust. Or mold. Or national debt. For the last decade, the Knicks’ infamous “Point Guard Problem” has been an ever-reliable source of pain. Of collective despair. Of pitiful production.

Looked at through the lens of this list of nobodies, it’s easy to talk yourself into a myriad of options this winter. The majority are a major upgrade, and outside of running it back with Payton or trading a single asset for Westbrook, there are logical arguments for the majority of directions. And there is no single right answer. No single rebuilding blueprint. No surefire first-step on the long road to contention. 

Hovering over all of this, over every potential point guard in the 2020-21 season, is the looming shadow of Cade Cunningham, the consensus first prize in a stacked 2021 draft class. Occasional Strickland guest writer PD Web — who sees all things draft like Neo sees the Matrix — recently described Cade as one of the five best prospects of the last twenty years. He’s the closest thing to Luka Doncic since Luka Doncic. A big playmaking offensive engine with a basketball supercomputer on his shoulders. Exactly how to factor a 14, 10, or single-digit percent chance at this kid next summer into this winter’s plans is a question for the Brock Allers of the world, but that his existence should be in some way factored into the equation, is a given.

The Knicks have been waiting for the same bus for what seems like a zillion seasons, and can now see, finally, not one, but five — 10, even — good-looking buses on the horizon, heading this way. All they have to do is pick a bus. Except there’s also a limousine, a mythical earth-shatteringly beautiful limousine, rumored to be not too far behind this procession of buses. The word is this limo has no set route. Maybe they can hop on one of these buses and still get picked up by the limo somewhere else. But it’s unlikely. It’s best just to stay put, but then they might miss everything, waiting another zillion seasons, all over again, for anything with wheels to swing by. 

Maybe there isn’t a correct answer here. There are wrong answers, sure. But no single, shiny, risk-free strategy. Leon Rose is just going to have to make his choice, live with the results, and hope he’s not paying Westbrook $46.6 million in 2022.

For better or worse, the Knicks will likely have a new starting point guard suiting up next season. Whether it’s an elusive long-term answer, a short-term mistake, or the latest in the long line of sticking plasters, this winter offseason will be — and already is — a point-guard-apalooza in the Big Apple. For the first time, somehow, we’ve got a smorgasbord of possible solutions to a timeless positional problem. Anything could happen. And we’re still a month away from the draft. The sources surely still have a few candidates up their sleeves. 

Maybe next week it will be Jrue Holiday? Or Eric Bledsoe? Or Jeremy Lin? That’s a good one actually, that will get loads of clicks. He is a free agent, and just won Defensive Player of the Year in China. You heard it here first: human point guard Jeremy Lin is a theoretical fit for the Knicks. Stop laughing. It’s possible. At least he’s not Russell Westbrook.