After years of short-sighted mismanagement, the New York Knicks finally have an opportunity to build for the future thanks to a franchise-worst season.
The Knicks' 17-65 record gives them the second-best odds (19.9%) of landing the No. 1 pick in June's draft, and guarantees the team a top-five pick.
With players like Karl-Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor, Emmanuel Mudiay, D'Angelo Russell and Justise Winslow at the top of the board, the Knicks should be in line to nab a promising talent.
But this being the Knicks, who have 30-year-old Carmelo Anthony locked up through 2019, they may not be able to resist the opportunity to trade their pick for an already established talent.
"We'll consider everything," Jackson told reporters Tuesday. "Do you move a pick one, two, three or four? That's questionable. Do you move a pick five if that's the end result and use it as a chip? Maybe. So there's a lot of options out there."
Listening to offers and keeping an open mind is always the prudent thing to do, and if Jackson can find a can't-miss package that delivers him another star, it would be tough to pass up, especially considering his goals for next season.
"I want to see us have a winning record," Jackson said. "And that's a big jump to go from where we're at to having a winning record."
But given that the Knicks have no surefire young talent currently on the roster and don't own a first-round pick in 2016, landing a building block for the future in 2015 is imperative.
Barring an unlikely trade that brings about a star young enough to also be that building block, the draft seems like the way to go.
"The reality is we want to grow a star through this system that'll be here for 15 years and a career," Jackson said.
"We love the fact that 30 years ago Patrick Ewing, the Knicks, who I think were third in the lottery system at that time, came out first and he was a player with this organization for over 15 years. And that moved the franchise in a way which everybody recognizes. We think there are a couple of players in this draft that might be able to do that."
The Knicks won the 1985 Draft Lottery - and the right to select Ewing - at a time when all of the NBA's non-playoff teams had an equal chance to land the No. 1 pick. Conspiracy theorists maintain that the Knicks' envelope was frozen or bent so that then-commissioner David Stern would know which envelope to select, thereby delivering Ewing to the league's biggest market.
