In case you don’t recall, the Knicks entered July with nine free agents of their own.
Once the club got spurned early by Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Knicks owner James Dolan’s crew had $74.8 million to throw around ($70 million in cap space plus the $4.8 million room exception).
It is telling that none of their nine free agents will be back as Knicks.
Not Noah Vonleh, though they entered the summer without a power forward on the roster. Not Mario Hezonja, whom general manager Scott Perry made the Knicks’ marquee free-agent signing last summer (the Magic had drafted Hezonja when Perry was assistant GM in Orlando).
Not point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, who finished the season as the Knicks’ leading scorer.
The Knicks weren’t outbid. The brass just didn’t want any of them back — with the exception of center DeAndre Jordan.
The Knicks sold player development, rather than their record, as the key element on which to judge last season. Yet not one of their nine free agents was considered worthy of another contract with the team.
That’s a stain on coach David Fizdale, who is off in Africa for Basketball Without Borders. Last summer, Fizdale was on a trip to Latvia to win over Kristaps Porzingis. The 7-foot-3 star, who was traded to Dallas in January, never played a single game for Fizdale, nor did he want to commit to playing for him in the future.
In July, the market for Knicks free agents wasn’t high after Fizdale’s Tank Machine finished a league-worst 17-65. Hezonja took the minimum contract from Portland. Mudiay, according to a source, signed a one-year minimum deal with Utah. Vonleh got a shade over the minimum with Minnesota.
New-age center Luke Kornet cashed in the most, signing a two-year, $4.5 million pact with Chicago. That prompted former Knicks president Phil Jackson to come out of hibernation and tell journalist Sam Smith: “We liked Luke out of college. He has a real touch.’’
So what gives? Knicks president Steve Mills said multiple times last preseason his hope was to have his free-agents-to-be perform so strikingly well, he would be forced to carve out cap space for them.
Despite Vonleh saying during his Timberwolves presser the Knicks “let me spread my wings and grow as a player,” the club instead lavished $15 million on Bobby Portis and $10 million on Taj Gibson for next season.
The only player the Knicks would have wanted back was Jordan, the veteran center acquired in the Porzingis deal who was hailed as a lure for Durant. Instead, Jordan served as an informant planted in Manhattan.
Jordan ultimately concluded Brooklyn was the place they should put down roots. So much for that culture Fizdale said he created amid the tank-fest.
“Not to knock the culture the Knicks are creating, but we like what Kenny’s doing and Sean’s been awesome and the organization, from top to bottom, has been great,” Jordan said over the weekend regarding Nets coach Kenny Atkinson and GM Sean Marks. “So you want to be a part of something like that, especially when you have a chance to play with other great players and build something.”
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Mudiay took precious time away from Frank Ntilikina, who also could be gone soon as the Knicks decide whether to exercise his fourth-year rookie-contract option in October.
At his press conference in Utah, Mudiay said his confidant, former Knicks coach Larry Brown, recommended Utah coach Quin Snyder. Mudiay added Utah has a strong reputation for making its players better and he was drawn by never having been on a playoff squad as the Jazz were last season.
Lance Thomas, the Knicks’ long-tenured locker-room leader, still is unemployed after Fizdale last summer called him “a Swiss Army knife’’ whom he would get to rise in the Draymond Green mold.
The 3-point specialist John Jenkins is still looking for a job. Former Pistons first-round pick Henry Ellenson jumped to the Nets. Former North Carolina forward Isaiah Hicks, a Knicks two-way G-Leaguer the past two seasons, didn’t develop and is looking for work.
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Fizdale has been incommunicado since free agency began, saying in Las Vegas the team is “holding me hostage.’’
At the press conference introducing No. 3-overall pick RJ Barrett on June 21, Fizdale did not sit next to Mills and Perry. Instead the coach was stationed on the last seat at the end and was asked just one question.
“It goes back to Chicago [combine] when we met with RJ,’’ Fizdale said in his most recent public remarks. “It was eight in the morning the next morning and he shows up like this [in a suit and tie]. Ready. Just that alone lets you know that he’s the kind of kid we want in our culture.”
What sort of culture Fizdale has built is unclear. Sadly, Mills and Perry have gone dark, too. Of the seven new signees, six are guaranteed for just one season. The way it has worked out, the revolving door may continue.
All six one-year signees could be saying “arrivederci” to the Knicks next July. And maybe Fizdale will be joining them.