Knicks Land Spurs Young Star in Ultimate Re-Draft

The New York Knicks and the rest of the NBA have seen droves of talent come into the league over the past few years.

Bleacher Report ran an exercise where each team had the chance to draft any player taken in 2019-23. With the No. 17 overall pick, the Knicks selected San Antonio Spurs guard Devin Vassell.

“The 23-year-old showed plenty of shot creation while averaging 19.5 points and 4.1 assists per game last year. He can act as an ancillary ball-handler, adds spacing with 2.5 makes from deep on a 37.8 success rate over the last two seasons and can score at three levels. His deep shooting should only improve as some of the creation pressure comes off in San Antonio—or in our alternate universe, New York,” Bleacher Report contributor Jay Dunbar writes. “While he isn’t the Spurs’ best defender and wouldn’t slide into that role in N.Y., he’s averaged 1.1 steals per game over the last three seasons and brings the mentality that would go a long way on Tom Thibodeau’s Nova Knicks.”

The Knicks aren’t in any kind of position to trade for Vassell after he just recently signed an extension with the Spurs, but he would be a great player to have in New York. He would take some of the pressure to create and score off of Brunson in the backcourt and Randle in the frontcourt and make them even more multi-dimensional on offense.

No Knicks were chosen in this exercise, but Toronto Raptors guard Immanuel Quickley, who was chosen with the No. 20 overall pick, went to the Memphis Grizzlies. Quickley was with the Knicks from 2020-23 before he was dealt to the Raptors in December.

Vassell’s contributions with the Knicks are divvied up by a few players, including Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges. While Vassell would be a great luxury to have, the Knicks are doing just fine without him.

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