Knicks Minimum Contracts to Pursue as Late NBA Free Agency Steals

The Knicks have accounted for almost everything while assembling one of the Association’s deepest rosters.

If you wanted to nitpick, though—and all teams in the title race absolutely should—it is fair to wonder about the club’s overall shot-creation. Jalen Brunson is a certified star, and Julius Randle has produced at All-Star levels, but New York’s support players don’t have a ton of go-get-us-a-bucket in their game.

Now, it’s entirely possible that Gordon Hayward wouldn’t change that—not as a 34-year-old who hasn’t topped 52 games in any of the past five seasons. If a minimum deal is doable, though, that’s a low-percentage shot worth taking.

His All-Star days are well behind him, but he’s still a relatively reliable source of support scoring and secondary playmaking. This was one of the least productive campaigns of his career, and he still closed it with per-game contributions of 9.8 points and 3.1 assists in 24.4 minutes, plus a tidy 46.4/41.1/74.2 shooting slash.