Knicks draft picks: New York's surprising record with late first-round picks

If the New York Knicks don't trade away their draft picks, recent history says they'll be able to land good players.

The Knicks own the 24th and 25th picks in the 2024 NBA Draft.

The entire draft is a gamble — no player is guaranteed to be good — and drafting toward the end of the first round is especially a toss-up. While there have been some great players drafted late in the first round, plenty of others make little to no impact in the NBA.

So, while there shouldn't be any major expectations for the Knicks' two late first-round picks this year, Knicks fans can also be a little encouraged: the Knicks have a surprisingly good record with picks in the 20s.

Starting with this decade alone, the Knicks landed Immanuel Quickley with the 25th pick in the 2020 and Quentin Grimes with the 25th pick in 2021.

The Knicks aren't technically credited with making those picks, as the Knicks acquired them in trades around the draft. Nonetheless, the Knicks landed them — along with extra picks — before those players ever played a minute in the NBA. In Quickley's case, Yaron Weitzman reported in the New York Post that Knicks executive William "Worldwide" Wesley pushed hard for the team to draft Quickley.

Quickley made an immediate impact his rookie year and developed into a key member of the rotation for the Knicks, finishing second in Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2023. The Knicks traded him to the Toronto Raptors this past year for OG Anunoby.

Grimes' career started more slowly, but he had an excellent second year as the Knicks' starting two-guard. He faltered a bit this past season, however, and was traded to the Detroit Pistons for Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks.

Going back to 2013, the Knicks selected Tim Hardaway Jr. with the 24th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. Though Hardaway had his warts, across two stints with the Knicks, he averaged 13.8 points in 27 minutes per game in New York — solid production for late first-round pick.

Going back to the aughts — although it was a far different era from today — the Knicks landed solid players at the end of the first round like Wilson Chandler (23rd pick in 2007), Renaldo Balkman (20th pick in 2006), and David Lee (30th pick in 2005).

The Knicks have even hit on some second-round players in recent years, like Mitchell Robinson (36th pick in 2018) and Miles McBride (36th pick in 2021, acquired via draft day trade).

The Knicks' only real draft misses in recent years were Frank Ntilikina (eighth pick in 2017) and Kevin Knox (ninth pick in 2018). And neither player was necessarily a draft bust ; they just didn't develop into productive players.

Again, the draft is a crapshoot and expecting the Knicks to land an impact player with the 24th or 25th pick is unfair. But if the Knicks keep their picks, history says they've been good at finding contributors.