One former member of the Knicks' front office and coaching staff thinks the Knicks would be making a mistake if they didn't select RJ Barrett at No. 3 in the NBA Draft -- assuming he's on the board.
"They better pick him if he's there,'' Brendan Suhr, the Knicks' director of player personnel and assistant coach from 2004-07, told the New York Post. "RJ has potential to be as good a scoring guard as we've had come into the league in the last 10 years. He's very versatile, with a mentality to score. He's dominated every level, dominated at the FIBA [International Basketball Federation] level. And he's got great size. He's a winner, comes from great basketball and athletic family. You're getting a great kid. He's the strongest candidate for that pick.''
Suhr, a New Jersey native who used to run the Knicks' drafts, was involved in the NBA for nearly 28 years before spending several years in the college ranks, mostly recently as an associate head coach with LSU.
Zion Williamson surely will go No. 1 overall, and Memphis has zeroed in on Ja Morant at No. 2.
"(Barrett) was the No. 1 player in the draft coming into college and Zion was 2 or 3,'' Suhr told the Post. "The college game is totally different than (the) NBA game. What Zion and RJ both learned is they played for a great coach and played on as near an NBA team as can be. Everyone in the NBA thinks they're a great player, so you have to learn to share the ball and fit in. …
"They showed they're winners, love to win, hate losing and can play with great players.''
The Knicks could use the No. 3 pick in a package to try to get Anthony Davis from New Orleans, which landed the No. 1 pick.
They could also simply take Barrett and have him join what the Knicks hope will be Kevin Durant and another max free agent like Kyrie Irving. In a video that recently resurfaced, Durant praised Barrett while watching Barrett's highlights.
SNY Insider Ian Begley reported that some within the Knicks organization think highly of Texas Tech's Jarrett Culver.