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At some point, I'd like to sit down and make a list of every single player in whom the Knicks have reportedly shown "interest" this summer, just to demonstrate that reports like those-- while fun to consider-- are almost never predictive. If they were all meaningful, the Knicks would have like 70 guys under contract right now. They'd be SO DEEP.
That said, the rumors flitting by over the last month suggest the Knicks-- with plenty of non-guaranteed (and a bit of guaranteed, if they please) room left to fill before training camp-- have been poking through the veteran scrap heap for signs of life. There was the early August workout that gave us the "big man from Lithuania", the Gary Forbes workout that may or may not have actually happened, and the meeting with Hamed Haddadi that evidently didn't amount to anything. And now we have these two things:
The Knicks, Bucks and Heat are among the teams that have expressed interest in free agent Hassan Whiteside, according to a source.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) September 4, 2013
Miami Heat, los Lakers y su antiguo equipo, New York Knicks, figuran entre los 8 equipos de la NBA que están tras Renaldo Balkman.
— jean marco (@jeanmarcoward) September 5, 2013
Regarding the first thing: The Knicks supposedly liked Whiteside before the 2010 draft, but he went 33rd to the Kings before New York got on the board ("Hassan and Landry" wouldn't have had the same ring as "Andy and Landry" anyway). Since then, he's played almost no NBA minutes, and not even very much in the D-League, though his numbers there are attractive enough. Over the summer, he won a championship in China! For the Knicks' purposes, Whiteside is quite tall and just 24 years old, which is enough, I think, to warrant a camp invite. I'm also the proud owner of his draft night seat placard, so he's got that going for him. "Knicks, Bucks and Heat" reads like an agent pimping his client, so you can add that grain of salt to the knowledge that "interest" usually amounts to nothing anyway.
Regarding the second thing: AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HUMPTY HUMP YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS BY NO MEANS WILL OR SHOULD THIS HAPPEN BUT RENALDO BALKMAN RETURNING TO THE KNICKS FOR THE THIRD TIME WOULD BE THE MOVE OF THE CENTURY I DON'T CARE IF THERE'S NO ROOM FOR HIM JUST LET HIM CHEESE OUT ON THE BENCH OR PLAY HIM AT CENTER OR SOMETHING YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
So, yeah, the Knicks are still sniffing around. Probably nothing, but I like to keep up with who the Knicks are keeping up with. Less than a month until training camp, y'all.