New Orleans Pelicans: Possible Landing Spots for Derrick Favors
New Orleans Pelicans: Could the Knicks or Hawks Sign Derrick Favors?
Atlanta Hawks
Possible Cap Space: $51 million
Biggest needs: Wings
After the Atlanta Hawks traded for Clint Capela, it became unlikely that they’d be looking for a big man in free agency.
The Hawks will have the most cap space of any team and probably wish it wasn’t in an offseason with so much chaos and few marquee free agents.
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The Hawks may decide to sit on their space or use it to make trades and gather assets, but either way, it’s extremely unlikely they’d make a play for Favors with Capela and John Collins already in place.
New York Knicks
Possible Cap Space: $46 million
Biggest Needs: Guards, wings, talent
The Knicks would have to renounce four of their own free agents to get this much cap space and may decide to just re-sign some of those guys to short deals and save their money for a more glamorous crop of free agents.
From a basketball standpoint, Derrick Favors makes some sense, especially if they feel Mitchell Robinson is best deployed from the bench.
Favors would definitely be an upgrade defensively down low, but his timeline doesn’t fit with whatever it is the Knicks are doing (does anyone know?). It’s doubtful Favors would want to spend the last good years of his career playing for a rebuild in New York.
It also doesn’t make a lot of sense for the Knicks, who are nowhere near being a contender and need to stockpile young talent and draft assets, not 28-year-old centers.