Exclusive | Fran Fraschilla tells The Post why he trusts Knicks draft process as they seek title repeat
Trust in Knicks decision-making is at an all-time high. President Leon Rose, his front office and the scouting department around him have brought a team out of purgatory and turned it into a champion.Their next challenge is to repeat as champions. And their latest moves were to trade the No.
24 pick in the draft and out of the first round completely, make two second-round picks and trade two other second-rounders.Usually, much shouldn’t be expected from players drafted in the middle of the second round — where the Knicks selected Jack Kayil (No.
39) and Tyler Nickel (No.47).
But this front office has delivered contributors from similar draft positions recently. Can they do it again? “I trust the Knicks — they have a great scouting department,” Fran Fraschilla, the former head coach at Manhattan, St.John’s and New Mexico and now ESPN’s college basketball analyst, who also is part of the network’s NBA draft coverage, told The Post.
“They hit on guys like this.… Let’s put it this way, I’ll say this — Walt Perrin and Brock Aller, they know what they’re doing.
It’s not a given that either of these guys is gonna be a home run, but I would trust their judgment given their recent track record.” The 20-year-old Kayil was the higher pick of the two, but most know less about him, given that he has played overseas in Germany for Alba Berlin.He just recently won the Bundesliga championship with Alba Berlin, recording 10 points, three rebounds and a steal — though on 2-for-11 shooting from the field and 1-for-9 shooting from 3-point range — in the title game against Bayern Munich. “He’s a big, strong but young point guard who gained a lot of experience in a relatively high-level European league,” Fraschilla, who is also respected as one of the most knowledgeable about overseas basketball, said.
“It’s to his credit that he just led his Alba Berlin to an unexpected championship.That’s in his favor.
Skillwise, he’s still...