Adrian Wojnarowski on the reconstruction of the Knicks: ‘They will not enter free agency and will have a big star’

ESPN NBA senior insider Adrian Wojnarowski was stopped by the latest episode of The Putback, talking about everything NBA-related with SNY’s Ian Begley and Chris Williamson.

While the upcoming NBA Draft was a hot topic, Woj also touched on rebuilding the Knicks under the leadership of new team president Leon Rose and head coach Tom Thibodeau.

There aren’t many as tied to the NBA’s pulse as Wojnarowski, and he believes the Knicks will need to focus on player development to change that, rather than trying to spend other teams on the free agent front.

“It’s certainly a group that I think has a lot of synergies between it, a lot of strong relationships. I think for the Knicks the perception just changes day by day as they are more progressive. Being a place [where] the focus is on the player and the players who improve, on the team who improve, “said Wojnarowski.” They won’t go into free agency and have a big star, it won’t happen. You don’t get big stars when you rebuilds when players have not been shown that some kind of solid infrastructure can be sustained and that they can trust”.

Wojnarowski believes that things must start with good writing and developing those talents.

“I don’t think this will be a quick fix,” Wojnarowski said. “They have to start drawing well. And I know that Fred VanVleet is a player that a lot of teams certainly would like to reach. It would satisfy a great need for the Knicks. I think it’s hard to get him out of Toronto”.