New York Knicks: NBA Draft Lottery Results — A Blessing In Disguise

Losing the NBA Draft Lottery was a huge disappointment for the New York Knicks and their fans. It isn’t all bad as Joey Holeman explains.

The New York Knicks have lost the Zion Williamson sweepstakes, but the number three overall pick is nothing to be upset about. There are still plenty of decisions for the Knicks front office to make this offseason, but with the option of drafting Zion of the table, so is the absurd amount of pressure.

It was strange, as a New York Knicks fan, to watch the 2019 Draft Lottery. There was a buzz in the city and around the league for the first time in a long time. The fan base was hopeful they could land the number one pick and draft a franchise-altering talent and personality in Zion Williamson.

Prior to the draft lottery, it felt as if New York getting the number one pick was a foregone conclusion. But why was that the case? After all, it is a lottery – a gamble, pure luck – whatever you want to call it.

New York City’s team finished the 2018-19 season with the worst record in the NBA with 17 wins and 65 losses. That earned them a 14% chance of garnering the number one pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

The draft lottery is in place to help the league equally distribute talent amongst the 30 teams, as well as, discourage tanking. Essentially the worst teams have the best chance of getting their pick of young talent from college and overseas. But why New York Knicks fans, believe that the draft lottery could change the misfortunes of their beloved franchise?

To be honest, despite the short-lived and dreaded Carmelo Anthony and Phil Jackson era, the Knicks haven’t been relevant for almost 20 years. In fact, this month is the 19th anniversary of New York Knicks defeating the Miami Heat in the 2000 Eastern Conference Semifinals.

That was NYK’s last opportunity to compete for a conference title. Two decades is a dramatically long time, for such a storied franchise in the basketball haven of New York to go without title contention. Moreover, the Knicks haven’t won an NBA Championship Since 1973 – that’s a 46-year drought.

So why did the Knicks faithful feel so confident in winning the Zion sweepstakes? Maybe it was the media pushing that narrative, or the idea of a league conspiracy to help the Knicks become relevant again, or the legendary false optimism of Knicks fans.

Whatever it was the fan base truly believed the Knicks would land the high-flying, modern-day human highlight reel and 2019 National College Player of the Year. But as the story continues to go for the past 20 years, the New York Knicks didn’t get the number one pick, instead, they got the number three pick, which I think is a blessing in disguise.

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Yes, Knicks fans would have loved to have Zion. Additionally, they hoped the team would sign both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving through free agency. That’s a lot of wishful thinking which was contingent on luck.

Say what you want to say about how bad the Knicks appeared this year, but head coach David Fizdale and general manager Steve Mills are changing the culture of the franchise. Their young core players – Frank Ntilikina, Dennis Smith Jr., Kevin Knox, and Mitchell Robinson – played hard for Fizdale and showed signs of being quality NBA starters.

The third overall pick is an extremely valuable asset. As of now, it appears to be Duke freshman R.J Barrett will be selected in that slot. The top two picks should be Zion first, followed by Ja Morant.

Barrett showed in 2018-19 that he is a legitimate NBA prospect. New York Knicks fans should be excited for the possibility of drafting him. The third overall pick also comes with much less pressure from media and fans.

Imagine if the Knicks got Zion. How many people would be demanding for the Knicks to go all in and enter a win-now mode? Not that putting his talent on the roster would be bad, it would be awesome. The Knicks, however, don’t need that pressure right now.

As much as I don’t trust Knicks ownership, I do trust Mills and Fizdale to make the correct basketball decisions. New York will be a valuable destination for free agents this summer, but even if they don’t land the big names, they have changed the perception of New York Knicks basketball.