Knicks lose NBA Draft coin toss to Minnesota Timberwolves
Knicks president Phil Jackson accepted blame for the Knicks' poor season during a media session on Friday April 14, 2017. Credit: Richard Harbus
The Knicks suffered another loss Tuesday.
The NBA broke the ties for the June 22 draft Tuesday, and the Timberwolves, who had the same record as the Knicks, won the random drawing. So Minnesota will be slotted to pick sixth and the Knicks seventh.
The official order will be determined at the NBA Draft Lottery on May 16.
After winning their finale, the Knicks ended the season 31-51 and tied with Minnesota for the sixth-worst record in the league.
The Timberwolves and Knicks each have a 5.3-percent chance of getting the first overall pick and 18.3-percent odds of selecting in the top three.
Both teams could move back as far as three spots if teams behind them jump into the top three. If there is no movement in the lottery, Minnesota will pick sixth and the Knicks seventh.
Had the Knicks not won their last game, they would have had 6.3-percent odds of winning the lottery and a 21.5-percent chance of getting a top-three choice. They also couldn’t have fallen further than ninth.
The Knicks need a point guard and there are five who could go in the top 10: Washington’s Markelle Fultz, UCLA’s Lonzo Ball, Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox, North Carolina State’s Dennis Smith and Frenchman Frank Ntilikina.
The Knicks, who missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season, would likely need to move into the top two to grab Fultz or Ball. At seven, they might be too low to grab Fox or his former Kentucky teammate, shooting guard Malik Monk.
If the Knicks stand pat or drop, Smith and Ntilikina could be available to them as well as Florida State forward Jonathan Isaac or Arizona 7-footer Lauri Markkanen.
“It’s one of the years we have a draft pick, so we’re looking forward to that,” team president Phil Jackson said last week. “It’s a lottery, so whenever there’s a lottery there’s always a chance we’ll move up or we could move back, as we found out a couple of years ago.”
In 2015, the Knicks won two of their final three games and finished one game behind Minnesota for the worst record in the NBA. Minnesota won the lottery and took Karl-Anthony Towns. The Knicks fell to fourth, where they selected Kristaps Porzingis.
“Our draft pick in KP turned out to be a pretty good deal,” Jackson said. “We’re hoping this draft pick will be a player of some talent. We understand a lot of these are young people, that it’s going to take three or four years for them to develop.”
With Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks future in doubt, the Knicks could rely more on Porzingis next season. But he’s frustrated about the ongoing drama and the direction of the franchise. Porzingis skipped his exit interview with Jackson last week.
Porzingis said last week that we was heading back to Latvia soon to begin training. He told FIBA.com he would like to play for the Latvian National Team in the European Championships this summer and “help the team to get to the second round.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
