Mar 22, 2012; Boston, MA, USA; Syracuse Orange guard Scoop Jardine (11) shoots over Wisconsin Badgers forward Ryan Evans (5) in the second half of the east region of the 2012 NCAA men

In addition to needing frontcourt depth, which I looked at by taking a look at Cincinnati’s Yancy Gates and Gonzaga’s Robert Sacre, the Knicks also need to address point guard depth in the offseason as well.

If things go well and the Knicks get the Bird right’s of Jeremy Lin, they will be in a position to potentially also add a veteran guard to back up Lin as well.

However if they don’t and are forced to use their MLE to keep Lin in the Big Apple, general manager Glen Grunwald could be forced to address point guard depth via June’s draft.

On the surface that could be a problem, considering they would have a guy in Lin that started only 25 games and a rookie as his backup. If that’s the route they have to go, there are some talented point guards to take a look at, one of which being Philadelphia native and former Syracuse product Scoop Jardine.

Jardine is likely viewed as an NBA backup after averaging 8.3 points and 4.7 assists for the Orange as a senior. But with the No. 48 pick, that is essentially what the Knicks are looking to add and that’s depth.

He’s a guy that sees the floor pretty well and is a pretty good decision maker, but he isn’t viewed as a great athlete and doesn’t have great end-to-end speed.

But Jardine is a crafty player who finds a way to make plays.

As a shooter, Jardine made 53 percent of his 2-point attempts and 38 percent of his attempts from behind the arc. I look at something like that more than his per game averages as Syracuse was a very deep team and on any other team Jardine likely would have put up better overall numbers.

The Knicks worked out Jardine, but I find it very interesting that he doesn’t even crack ESPN’s Chad Ford’s Top 100 prospects, which could lead me to believe that he could go undrafted and someone the Knicks could sign afterwards.

 Next in the Series: Tu Holloway, Xavier

Evaluating players before the draft is not easy, but at least you know who you are talking about. Predicting who is going to get picked when is harder. Everyone has their own ranking system, but the big question is whether a team is going to pick the best player available or pick the player who best addresses the team’s needs.

The other question is, what on earth was that GM thinking? The most recent “what was he thinking” award goes to the Minnesota Timberwolves, for using the 5th and 6th draft picks on point guards (Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio), followed by having one of them (Rubio) make noises that he would never play for the Wolves, and creating a situation where the other, Flynn, felt unsure of the team’s commitment to him, and for good reason.

So for me to say who will make which pick is guesswork, because every year there are inexplicable decisions made, and there are players drafted in the top 20 whose name you hear when he is selected, but then never again. Comparing mock drafts, I have seen players’ names move twenty spots or more.

Mostly, I’m seeing mocks that describe players, not why they will be picked or what the team is thinking. I already wrote about the players likely to be drafted in the first round, so instead, lets’ discuss what the team should do, not what they will do, because many teams have a weird tendency to pick the same type of player over and over regardless of the results. (Lakers trying to find a point guard, Bulls drafting post players, Houston drafting 3’s, Warriors drafting skilled bigs, etc.) Redundancy makes sense for some teams, but for others it’s stupid. I’ll take those case by case.
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