Last night it was expected to become official.
A Bucks home victory over the Clippers would mathematically eliminate the Knicks from the playoffs, ensuring a seat on the draft dais in Secaucus for the second straight season. A Bucks victory would also mean the Knicks will have gone without a championship for 30 years.
It’s all about the lottery now and the Knicks want to add a center. Odds are, the Knicks will not be in position to select Yugoslavian center Darko Milicic, expected to go second. However, one college center emerging as a late lottery pick is 7-foot Central Michigan pivot Chris Kaman, a junior, and the Knicks are said to have interest.
However, some consider Kaman a project not ready for the NBA next season and the Knicks rarely show patience. Other than Kaman, no other American center is lottery material.
“He’s a Scott Layden-type of player, based on Scott’s draft history in Utah,” one scout said of Kaman. “He’s a pretty good offensive center but he has slow feet on defense and needs to get stronger. He’ll be the first American center drafted and everyone knows the Knicks need a center. But Scott picked late in the draft in Utah. Will he want to take a chance on a guy like that in the lottery.”
With four games left, the Knicks likely will have the eighth seed in the lottery, giving them a 2.9 percent chance of winning the top pick and a 10 percent chance of landing in the top 3. The three draft jewels are LeBron James, Milicic and Carmelo Anthony. After that, scouts see a drop.
“If the Knicks stay at eight or nine, it’s a bastard pick,” another scout said. “The draft stops at five and that’s if [UConn PF, Emeka] Okafor comes out. There’ll be guys picked in the lottery who in other years weren’t deserving.”
Which is why there’s a definite chance the Knicks will trade down in the draft like last season, going from No. 7 to 25th in the Antonio McDyess deal. The Raptors and Knicks discussed an Antonio Davis-for-Latrell Sprewell package at the trade deadline and the Knicks may need to sweeten it with draft picks. They have two second-rounders – their own and Denver’s, which will be the 31st overall pick. Packaging both in a mega-deal is a consideration.
One other intriguing foreign center is the Greek “Baby Shaq”, Sofoklis Schortsianides, but there are questions about his height. He’s been touted at anywhere between 6-8 and 6-10. His agent, Mark Fleisher, said he measured three weeks ago at 6-10 in sneakers.
As for power forwards, they are plentiful, though Okafor is expected to stay at UConn. Georgia Tech’s 6-10 Chris Bosh emerges as the best and could go fourth or fifth. One scout called him “another Keon Clark.” Brazil’s 6-10 Anderson Varejao could be top-10 and the defender the Knicks need. “He blocks shots and rebounds but he’s not a very good scorer,” one scout said.
Georgetown’s 6-8 power forward Mike Sweetney also is being looked at late in the lottery – a wide-body who creates space in the low post. There’s also talk about Mario Austin. College power-forward superstars David West and Nick Collison won all the accolades but aren’t surefire lottery picks.
