Here’s the scoop: Selecting at No. 48 in next month’s NBA Draft, the Knicks aren’t going to find a point guard on par with Jeremy Lin. But the Knicks are sure going to see if 6-foot-2 Syracuse point guard Scoop Jardine can give them depth at a position in which the cupboard is virtually bare.
Today, the Knicks will commence their pre-draft workouts and bring in Jardine and another intriguing local product, Tu Holloway, the 6-foot point guard from Hempstead, Long Island, via Xavier. Holloway’s rep took a hit last season for his involvement in a fight against Cincinnati after which he said his club had “a whole bunch of gangsters.’’
Still, Holloway has a lot of game and New York-area pedigree. Jardine, the lovable, quotable product of Philadelphia who led Syracuse to the Elite 8, is a definite second-rounder, with one NBA executive projecting him to go between 40 and 60.
The executive called Jardine “real clever and crafty and very good at using angles and has good vision.’’ However, Jardine is not considered particularly athletic or possessing the kind of speed Lin showed during his breakout two months.
Still, NBA scouts see Jardine as a potential backup, after he averaged 8.3 points and 4.7 assists for the Orange as a senior.
Holloway is tougher to project because NBA scouts are worried about his smallish stature and that he doesn’t possess the speed of the similarly small Isaiah Thomas of Sacramento. Some don’t view Holloway as a legitimate rotation player but more of a third-stringer. Holloway does have toughness, however, and the Knicks could do worse than filling out their point-guard-less roster with him.
The Knicks do not own their first-round pick and can’t even buy one under the new CBA bylaws. They would have selected 15th in the June 28 draft but the Rockets own it from the questionable Tracy McGrady cap-clearing trade at the 2010 trade deadline. The Knicks gave up their 2012 first-rounder and their 2009 selection, Jordan Hill, now in the Lakers’ rotation.
The idea of the McGrady trade was to create enough cap space for two max players in 2010 free agency — LeBron James and a star partner.
In years past, the Knicks could have dangled $3 million on Draft night to buy a late first-round pick. But because they forked over $3 million to the Wizards in December in the Ronny Turiaf segment of the Tyson Chandler blockbuster, owner James Dolan is tapped out. The new CBA — in what should be dubbed the Dolan Rule — prohibits teams from throwing in more than $3 million total in trades for a year.
Lin, who was undrafted out of Harvard, is still rehabbing from knee surgery at the Knicks’ Westchester campus and could be an onlooker today. The Knicks hope to re-sign Lin and are desperate to add another guard in the draft for depth.
Last year’s first-round pick, Iman Shumpert, will miss training camp and possibly the first month or two of the regular season as he rehabs from a torn ACL and meniscus suffered in Game 1 of the playoffs.
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The Knicks still are planning on announcing Mike Woodson’s new multi-year deal as coach — likely three years — either today or tomorrow but aren’t planning on staging a press conference. The announcement will be handled in modest fashion.
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Shumpert yesterday received another high honor, selected to the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team in a three-way tie for the fifth spot with Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Knight. The first team also included Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, Kenneth Faried and Klay Thompson. Shumpert finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting.
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Others attending the first pre-draft workout are forwards Kris Middleton (Texas A&M); John Shurna (Northwestern) and centers Michael Eric, (Temple) and Bernard James (Florida State).