SNY’s Ian Begley reports that at least one team expects the Knicks to chase Wood this off-season, echoing a March report to that effect.
25-year-old Wood just recently jumped to the top of the free agent class. Not drawn in 2015, Wood played for five teams. He only got the minimum from Detroit last season. But Blake Griffin ‘s absence gave Wood the opportunity to play, and he ran with it. In a limited champion as a starter, Wood averaged 21.9 points per game on ridiculous 56 / 40.8 / 73.4 shooting splits.
That shooting makes him especially attractive to a Knicks team that already has Mitchell Robinson entrenched as the center of the future. Neither Robinson nor colleague RJ Barrett shoot particularly well from beyond the arc, so adequately spacing the floor for them is crucial. New Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has worked with several shooters in the past. Karl-Anthony Towns is the most notable example, but in Chicago, the medium-range footage of Taj Gibson and Carlos Boozer represented spacing by the standard of that era.
If the Knicks are indeed chasing Wood, this indicates that Julius Randle is no longer an important part of their future. That makes sense given its underwhelming debut season in New York. Randle has been regularly criticized for hogging the offense and his defense has never been consistent enough to justify the contract he is currently playing with. Randle only has $ 4 million guaranteed for the 2021-22 season.