New York Knicks are interested in Fred VanVleet, because of course they are
By Josh Hill
The New York Knicks are interested in signing Fred VanVleet if he gets away from the Toronto Raptors in free agency.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, the New York Knicks have identified a free agent that will help them turn their garbage barge around.
Fred VanVleet is going to hit free agency whenever it opens. Right now there’s no set date in place for when free agency will open, as the original date of October 18th was pushed back to accommodate the NBA’s new bubble timeline.
But whenever it opens, you’d best be sure the Knicks will have well-laid plans that will inevitably not pan out.
According to Stefan Bondy, the Knicks are among the teams interested in signing VanVleet once free agency opens.
Of course, the main variable there is VanVleet getting away from Toronto, which seems like a long shot at this point. As Bondy — and anyone who watched the Raptors this season — points out, Toronto is the favorite to retain the guard and keep him as a piece of whatever roster concoction Nick Nurse will have moving forward.
New York’s free agency woes have been nothing new, in fact, their woes, in general, are the stuff of legend. Most recently, the Knicks cleared the deck to make a run at Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving; the two did indeed sign in New York but did so in the Brooklyn borough and with the Nets.
For the cost of trading away Kristaps Porzingis — the franchise’s most exciting and important player in two decades — the Knicks signed a bunch of mid-to-low tier players and attempted to sell it as their plan all along.
VanVleet is a top free agent on the market after putting together a phenomenal regular season and proving himself to be an important part of the winning culture in Toronto. Playing for the Knicks is the antithesis of everything VanVleet has accomplished and experienced in his career up to this point, and they’re not the only team interested in bringing him in. So while it’s a nice thought, New York fixing their mess with VanVleet seems more like a dream than any sort of reality.