Report: Knicks, Carroll have mutual interest

The Atlanta Hawks saw their banner season fizzle out in dispiriting fashion in the Eastern Conference Finals, but will that be enough to send the team's impending free agents scuttling out of town - to the soul-flushing suckhole that is the New York Knicks, no less?

It's not entirely out of the question, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post, who reports a source close to DeMarre Carroll claims the Hawks small forward has a desire to play for the Knicks and head coach Derek Fisher - a former workout partner from early in Carroll's career.

Knicks president Phil Jackson is reportedly enamored of Carroll. And why wouldn't he be? The 28-year-old swingman has emerged as a versatile two-way force, cresting with a breakout playoff performance that saw him average 14.6 points and 6.1 rebounds, shooting 48.6 percent from the field and 40.3 percent from deep, all while consistently guarding the opposing team's best wing.

"I’ve been getting a million calls and emails," Carroll said of his upcoming summer. "This might be the biggest contract of my life. But at the end of the day, this game isn’t promised to you. So whenever you’ve got an opportunity to play basketball, a lot of people say it’s bigger than money and it feels like that to me."

The Knicks aren't in a position to discount any free agent that might be remotely interested in joining their 17-win roster, least of all one who brings as much to the table as Carroll. They desperately need help on both sides of the ball, coming off a season in which they finished 29th in offense and 28th in defense.

Carroll has improved his jumper by leaps and bounds over the past two years, evolving into a prototypical modern 3-and-D wing. He's expected to command a contract in the vicinity of four years and $50 million, though with the cap set to explode in 2016, nobody is quite sure what this summer's market is going to look like.