NBA Rumors: Is Signing With the New York Knicks a Possible Move for LeBron James?
The Knicks reportedly sought information from James' agent before hiring new head coach David Fizdale
Even with the advantages of being one of the NBA's signature franchises and playing in one of the biggest media markets, the New York Knicks haven't really been that much of a force in free agency in recent years.
Sure, Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire played for the franchise earlier this decade, but even during their primes, they were secondary stars in the league.
For quite some time now, the Knicks have tried to bring in a true superstar to play home games in Madison Square Garden, and thus far, at least, they have proven unsuccessful.
Those failures have apparently done little to discourage them, however, as they may have their sights set on soon-to-be free agent LeBron James.
The latest James-to-the-Knicks rumblings started up in the wake of the franchise deciding to hire David Fizdale as their head coach.
James and Fizdale worked together previously when the former starred for the Miami Heat and the latter was one of the team's assistant coaches.
Though the two have since parted ways, James has remained vocal in terms of his support for Fizdale.
It is worth noting that the Knicks opted not to talk to James about potentially hiring Fizdale, but what they did instead was to seek some information from James' agent Rich Paul, according to a recent report from the New York Post's Marc Berman.
Fizdale is certainly a highly qualified head coach and is capable of helping the Knicks improve next season, and those are probably the main reasons why the franchise chose to hire him. Still, it's not that hard to imagine the Knicks thinking that hiring Fizdale may help improve their chances of at least getting a sit-down meeting with James during this summer's free agency period.
Now, it is worth noting that the Knicks still have plenty of things they will need to do if they want to add James to the team.
For one, they will need to clear out some cap space.
Per Hoops Hype, the Knicks already have more than $98 million committed to next season's roster presuming that all eligible players pick up their player options. With the salary cap projected to be at around $101 million for next season, the Knicks will need to make some moves before they can officially sign James even if he wants to go there.
The issue with that is that the Knicks may need to offer other teams first round picks just so they will take on the bad contracts they currently have and doing that may leave the franchise asset-poor moving forward.
James may realize that himself and see that the Knicks may not be the right team for him, especially if he wants to contend for more titles over the next few years.
At this point, it does not really seem as though the Knicks have a great shot to sign James, but even if that's the case, they will still have a good, young head coach who may be able to lead the team to more successful seasons moving forward.
