Knicks Rumors: Free Agents Turned Off By the Franchise
By Nick Ziegler
Recent New York Knicks Rumors have emerged about free agents not being interested because of how the Knicks have handled the Carmelo Anthony situation.
Lately, all of the New York Knicks rumors have been about what will happen with Carmelo Anthony.
How the Knicks have gone about this situation has rubbed some players the wrong way, and it could affect how the Knicks are viewed by free agents. According to Al Iannazzone of Newsday, the Knicks handling of Anthony will result in free agents not considering the Knicks this offseason. Here’s what Iannazzone said about the situation in New York.
"Kyle Lowry is good friends with Carmelo Anthony, shares an agent with Kristaps Porzingis, and he will be a free agent this summer. But that doesn’t mean Lowry will consider the Knicks."
For years now, the Knicks have had an extremely hard time recruiting free agents. Once thought to be one of the premier destinations to be in the NBA, the Knicks have recently lost out on players like Greg Monroe to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Due to small markets not limiting what a player can do off the court now, the Knicks have lost their advantage of having a big market. In addition to that, the Knicks now also have a President that doesn’t appear to have a good relationship at all with his star player. Most importantly, the Knicks haven’t been winning.
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As an All-Star, Anthony is well respected around the league. His All-Star teammate and upcoming free agent, Kyle Lowry, believes that Anthony has handled the situation great.
"“I think Melo is handling it tremendously,” Lowry said to Iannazzone. “I think he’s handling it like a professional. He’s handled it fantastically, and he’s playing well. At the end of the day, he’s an All-Star and there’s a reason for everything. He’s handled it fantastically.”"
Even though trading Anthony might help the Knicks down the road depending on the return, how the situation was handled has left a mark on the franchise. Due to that, the James Dolan/Charles Oakley incident, and losing, don’t expect the Knicks to land any big free agents soon.