Greg Monroe (Photo : REUTERS)
It's going to be a make or break summer for the New York Knicks, who are looking to capitalize on their ample salary space in the last free-agency period before payroll is set to explode the following year.
Adam Fromal of Bleacher Report portended a very favorable outlook for the Knickerbockers, as he believes this summer would be the moment when president of basketball operations Phil Jackson make his presence felt in the Knicks front-office, acquiring the talents to augment the current roster and address the depressing state New Yorkers had to endure the past two seasons.
In a report by Marc Berman of New York Post, NBA agent David Falk dropped some hints about the preference of his client Greg Monroe, who will become an unrestricted free-agent this offseason after accepting the $5M qualifying year option with the Detroit Pistons.
Although Monroe hasn't come up with a shortlist of teams he wants to play for, Falk admitted that the Knicks have already emerged as front-runners, stressing his client has the skills-set to thrive under any system - including the Knicks' triangle offense.
"Do I think he'd be a good fit for the Knicks? Absolutely," Falk told Berman of Monroe's adaptability to any offensive scheme. "He'd be a good fit for 30 teams. Can he work in the triangle? Sure. He played the Princeton offense at Georgetown. He could play in the rhombus. He'd be a great fit for any system."
There will be a number of suitors for a double-double guy like Monroe, but Fromal opined that the Knicks might have an edge over their competitors because of their ability to shell-out a max contract. The Bleacher Report NBA writer believed Jackson will get the job done, salvaging a top-flight post operator this summer.
Then again, the Knicks aren't done yet in fleecing the Pistons of their young talents. According to Fromal, Jackson might end up signing point guard Reggie Jackson as well on what he called a Godfather offer (just below the max contract). He is really confident Jackson's power of persuasion would convince the dynamo PG to take a discounter offer for a chance to play with Monroe, Carmelo Anthony and a lottery pick in this year's draft.
"Expect the New York Knicks-a team sorely in need of a promising point guard, as well as one that was already linked to Jackson at the trade deadline, per Marc Berman of the New York Post-to come calling with a Godfather offer," Fromal claimed.
