There weren’t a lot of high hopes heading into Thursday’s NBA Draft for the New York Knicks, and in particular, new team president Phil Jackson. However, that landscape changed on Wednesday night when they dealt Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler to the Dallas Mavericks, and got back two picks in Thursday night’s event, no. 34 and no. 51 overall.
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With Carmelo Anthony already having opted out of his deal and becoming a free agent, it doesn’t look as if he will be back. Therefore, this draft for the Knicks and Jackson will be as crucial as ever, and the new team president knows that.
According to the New York Post, Jackson is looking to “shake things up” on Draft night.
“Phil would like to shake things up [in the draft],’’ a league source told The Post Wednesday before the deal was revealed. “He knows the team has to get better. He’s working on it.’’
Following the deal with the Mavericks, in a statement released by Jackson, you could tell that he’s not fooling around.
“The journey to build this team for the upcoming season and beyond continues,” Jackson said in statement Wednesday night. “We have added players with this move that will fit right into our system while maintaining future flexibility.’’
With the Knicks in better position for the draft now than they were before Wednesday, it’ll be interesting to see how Jackson goes about this shaking up process.