"What If..." Draft Edition: Part II

We continue our walk down almost-memory lane.

Good morning! As promised, we’re continuing our look at how history might have been altered if the Knicks did a few things differently on various draft nights along the way. If you missed Part I, click here.

"What If..." Draft Edition: Part II

Last week, in response to a question from Earnest Monk, we dove all the way down the rabbit hole to explore what would have happened if the Knicks traded up in the 2009 NBA Draft and took Steph Curry. As I noted then, it’s the only Knicks draft-related “What If” that consistently gets brought up even though there was virtually zero chance it could have happened.

The same, however, cannot be said of the other near-misses that Earnest asked about. On several other occasions - 2011, 2017 and 2018 were the other years he brought up - New York bypassed several reasonable options, and in at least one case, the obvious choice.

Before we go through those three years today though, we have to start with the far more realistic road not taken in the Curry draft…

2009

Don’t look now, but both DeMar DeRozan and Jrue Holiday are both on track to make the Hall of Fame. DeRozan is a 6-time All-Star with 23,582 career points. Everyone with at least 21,000 is either in or will be a first ballot entry. As for Jrue, Zach Harper wrote a compelling case for him a few weeks ago, and Michael Cooper’s recent induction opens the door for a defense-first, multi-time champion guard/wing to get in, even if he doesn’t have many of the typical credentials.

Sadly, both guys were on the board when New York took Jordan Hill 8th.