Kenny Payne, the new assistant coach of the Knicks, will already be reunited with two former Kentucky prisoners, Kevin Knox and Julius Randle.
From the sound of that, Payne, John Calipari’s longtime Kentucky assistant, wouldn’t mind facing a third Kentucky scorer, who he just coached last season at Lexington.
In an interview conducted with The Post on July 13, before becoming a Knicks coach candidate, Payne was thrilled with the prospect of the Tyrese Maxey lottery, the 6-foot 3 Kentucky electric combo guard.
Most mock drafts have Maxey as a late lottery pick, but if the Knicks stay in the 6-10 range, Payne believes Maxey will be a good-value pick in how the NBA is going with basketball. without position.
“I think he would be a good fit for any team,” Payne told The Post in July. “In the next couple of years, he’s going to be one of those guys you look back at and people say,” Wow, I knew he was good, I didn’t know he was that good. When you enlist a guy this young, you’re trying to figure out if he can help now, but you’re also projecting where he’ll be in a year or two from now. “
The lottery will be held virtually on August 20 with the top-seeded Knicks at number 6, with a nine percent chance of jumping to number 1.