The New York Knicks is projected as the most aggressive team to pursue free agents, specifically point guards.
It is unfortunate for them that one of their former point guards, former NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups, has predicted that they would strike out in their bid. His comments were taken by Marc Berman of the NY Post.
"I will tell you this about that triangle,'' Billups said. "If I'm a top point guard and a free agent, I'm not going to want to be playing in that triangle. A point guard needs more pick-and-roll, more freedom. It's going to be restrictive to my play. I think that would be a good thing - if they are opening it up a little. It's the only way to get a point guard.''
The triangle offense is the philosophy that drove Phil Jackson's championship teams with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. None of those teams had an elite-level point guard and the offense revolved around superstar offensive players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Scottie Pippen.
It would be very hard to argue with someone like the Zen Master who has more championship rings than fingers, but Billups contends that the way the game is played, an elite point guard is a must.
"More than any other time in the league, it's important to have an elite point guard,'' Billups said. "It's a guard's league. Most top point guards are lead guards who can get it done. No disrespect to anyone in a Knicks jersey, they don't have a guy on the roster who plays that position who can do that."
The Knicks know that and this is why Billups' comments hit hard on the Madison Square Garden fan base. The team would be hard-pressed to improve if top point guards like Mike Conley, for instance would refuse to go to the Knicks because of the triangle.
For Conley in particular, the chances are even slimmer. Newsday recounts the last time the Memphis Grizzlies visited MSG last month. The team was well aware that the Knicks want their top point guard. Zach Randolph, also a former Knick, was quoted: "Mike Conley's not coming here, man."
There are reasons beyond the triangle: there's money and security (Memphis can offer a five-year deal instead of four), loyalty and friendship specifically to center Marc Gasol who was pursued by the Knicks last summer but signed a five-year deal to stay with the Grizzlies.
"We've grown up together in this league, me and Marc, and with the Grizzlies," Conley confided. "We don't know anything different. So just like he did last year, it's something I'm going to wait and talk about later, because at the end of the day, it is a business and anything can happen. But obviously, they know how I feel about Marc and my teammates here."