The Knicks ditched their first-round pick and ditched Kem­ba Walker.

It was a con­fus­ing and hec­tic first two hours of the draft for the Knicks, with lit­tle to show for it in the short­term but more cap space for their Jalen Brun­son quest.

They failed to trade for Jaden Ivey, who was picked fifth by the Pis­tons. Then Leon Rose dealt his 11th pick to OKC for three future lot­tery-pro­tect­ed first-round picks, although unknown to the Bar­clays Cen­ter crowd, which booed the choice of Ous­mane Dieng because they thought the French­man went to New York.

Two picks lat­er, at No. 13, the Hor­nets took Mem­phis cen­ter Jalen Duren and sent him to the Pis­tons in a three-team trade involv­ing the Knicks, with Walk­er going to Detroit for a Knicks’ first rounder and four sec­ond rounders.

So Walker’s sad home­com­ing chap­ter is over, and it cost the Knicks draft cap­i­tal. He has $9.2 mil­lion left on his con­tract, which the Pis­tons will like­ly eat by releas­ing the Bronx-bred point guard.

The Pis­tons were the win­ners of the draft by adding Ivey and Duren to a line­up with Rook­ie of the Year Caden Cunningham.

The Knicks were, if noth­ing else, a draft-day let­down after flirt­ing with fire­works. Per­haps shed­ding salary will work in the long run in their pur­suit of Brun­son or Mal­colm Brog­don or (gulp) Kyrie Irv­ing, but sac­ri­fic­ing draft picks to shed a play­er signed just a year ago is an acknowl­edge­ment of fail­ure from the front office.

The Knicks were $18 mil­lion under the cap after get­ting rid of Walk­er, accord­ing to ESPN cap guru Bob­by Marks. They’re also try­ing to deal Ner­lens Noel, Alec Burks and Evan Fournier before free agency. An offer start­ing at about $25 mil­lion should be too high for Brun­son, per league ana­lysts, but the Knicks are bull­ish on the point guard.

It’s also worth not­ing that Brunson’s father, Rick, was just hired as an assis­tant coach and is very close with team pres­i­dent Leon Rose.

Rose’s son, Sam, now rep­re­sents Jalen Brun­son for CAA.

The night start­ed with a shock­er with Duke’s Pao­lo Banchero going first over­all, blow­ing up the mock boards that had Auburn’s Jabari Smith as the con­sen­sus top choice.

Gonzaga’s Chet Holm­gren went sec­ond to OKC and Smith fell to the Rock­ets at third. Iowa’s Kee­gan Mur­ray was a slight sur­prise at No. 4 to the Kings, who passed on Ivey. Per­haps not coin­ci­den­tal­ly, Ivey wasn’t keen on join­ing the Kings and said he had no con­tact with the orga­ni­za­tion before the draft.

The Knicks bailed on the first round after their dis­ap­point­ing 11th-place fin­ish last sea­son, one year after climb­ing to fourth.

Bar­ring the unex­pect­ed, Julius Ran­dle and RJ Bar­rett will head the ros­ter after both aver­ag­ing over 20 points last sea­son. Randle’s pro­duc­tion and mood remain a hot top­ic after last season’s deterioration.

Der­rick Rose should return from his ankle surgery to boost the offense, but the young play­ers – specif­i­cal­ly Obi Top­pin, Immanuel Quick­ley and Quentin Grimes – surged toward the end of the sea­son and earned con­sid­er­a­tion for greater roles.

GREAT EXPERIENCES

This was the first year for NBA Expe­ri­ences at the NBA draft, an attrac­tion for fans who pay for for two days of din­ing and immersion.

Among the perks was a steak din­ner with Dominique Wilkins, who pro­vid­ed the fol­low­ing high­light tales of his career:

· Bernard King was the only play­er who ever intim­i­dat­ed him.

· For­mer Hawks team­mate Kevin Willis used to place onions on his chest before games to make him­self upset.

· Michael Jor­dan admit­ted to Wilkins that the only rea­son he won their famous 1988 Slam Dunk con­test because it was in Chicago.

BLUE 42

The Knicks went for blue blood poten­tial in the sec­ond round.

After deal­ing his first rounder, Leon Rose used the 42nd pick on 18-year-old Duke guard Trevor Keels.

Keels, who is 6–4, was a five-star recruit and McDonald’s All-Amer­i­can out of high school but dis­ap­point­ed in his lone sea­son with the Blue Dev­ils while aver­ag­ing 11.5 points and shoot­ing 42% (31.2% on 3‑pointers).

Keels flashed his poten­tial, though, with a 25-point effort last sea­son against Kentucky.

The Knicks have fared well recent­ly with sec­ond rounders. Miles McBride and Jeri­cho Sims both cracked the rota­tion last sea­son as rook­ies. Mitchell Robin­son, the start­ing cen­ter, was a sec­ond-round pick in 2018.

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