The New York Knicks need another center, and options are thinning.
Mitchell Robinson will start, but who backs him up? With Isaiah Hartenstein departing for Oklahoma City, let’s run through the list of candidates.
Free agents Moe Wagner, Goga Bitadze and Jonas Valančiūnas, and others are now off the board. Those three scaled out of New York’s price range, anyway. The Knicks, who still employ Jericho Sims behind Robinson, don’t have many resources to acquire someone new.
At the moment, one player who already knows this group could be the favorite to enter next season as New York’s backup center.
Precious Achiuwa remains an unrestricted free agent, and the organization has left open the possibility of bringing him back, according to a league source. Achiuwa grew into a favorite of head coach Tom Thibodeau’s after arriving from the Toronto Raptors in December. He might not be the conventional shot blocker Thibodeau prefers in the middle of his defense, but the Knicks could send Achiuwa to the perimeter, using him in more switch-happy strategies than they would with their other big men. Thibodeau’s ethos is rim protection, but if the team can’t find a 7-footer to anchor its defense, he’ll deploy other blueprints. Both Achiuwa and Sims will venture out of the paint to guard.
If the Knicks brought back Achiuwa on a modest contract, they could slot the stretchy, 6-foot-8 New Yorker behind Robinson. If Robinson were to miss time, a possibility considering he’s played more than 66 games only once in his six-year career, Thibodeau would have to go small.
Beyond Achiuwa, not many viable free agents remain.
GO FURTHER
As NBA free-agent market dwindles, which center could the Knicks target?
