It has been a struggle for former New York Knicks lottery pick Kevin Knox to establish himself in the NBA. The 25-year-old forward is entering his seventh year in the league after spending some time with the Golden State Warriors summer league team last month.
Kevin Knox has been unable to find a consistent home in the NBA
Currently a free agent, Knox spent his first four seasons with the Knicks before bouncing around other rebuilding teams like the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, and Portland Trail Blazers. For his career, Knox is averaging 7.4 points but on poor efficiency, as he is shooting just 39% from the floor in his career.
Last season, he played in 31 games including 11 starts with the Detroit Pistons, and averaged 7.2 points on 46% shooting from the field and 33% from three. His 18.1 minutes per game was his highest average in that category since the 2019-20 season with the Knicks where he averaged 17.9 minutes per game.
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Knox never lived up to the draft hype with the Knicks
The 2018 ninth overall draft pick was supposed to help lead the Knicks to a franchise turnaround, but it never worked out and he has been unable to find a consistent roster spot in the league ever since. At 6’7” and 215 pounds, Knox was a highly touted prospect was named First Team All-SEC during his lone season at Kentucky, and even drew early comparisons to Kevin Durant for his all-around scoring abilities in college.
Unfortunately, none of those characteristics translated into the NBA, and he has been commonly deemed as one of the Knicks’ biggest draft busts in franchise history. Luckily for them, they were able to recover from the botched pick and are now set up to be one of the best teams in the league this upcoming season led by their All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson.
Knox could still be a serviceable bench option on plenty of teams that need wing depth, and it could give him an opportunity to finally carve out a long-term role in the league after several years of misfortune.
