As free agency frenzy begins Knicks options fade quickly

The clock had not even struck midnight when the wishful thinking portion of the Knicks’ free agent chase had already been squashed.

Amid the furor of activity, the Paul George to Oklahoma City trade garnering most of the oxygen, names started to come off the board before talks were even supposed to begin. Jeff Teague agreed to a deal with Minnesota, which had traded away another possible target, Ricky Rubio shortly before Teague agreed.

And as the sun came up, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Jrue Holiday had agreed to a five-year, $126 million deal to stay in New Orleans. The Knicks had hoped to meet with Holiday if his midnight meeting with the Pelicans didn’t go well, but after a brief break the deal was done.

So by the time they woke up the Knicks options at point guard, seeking a bridge and mentor to Frank Ntilikina, were dwindling. The top tier point guards still without a deal at daybreak included just Kyle Lowry and George Hill, although both were expected to be priced out of their range. So Derrick Rose was still in play. With the NBA setting the salary cap at $99 million for next season, the Knicks entered free agency approximately $16 million over.

It’s hard to imagine as the Knicks talk about getting younger and building for the future that Rose would be back, but the economics of the NBA make it possible. His resume over the years includes an MVP in 2011 and a troubling history of injuries after that. But in his one season in New York he missed nearly all of the preseason while attending a sexual assault civil suit, struggled with the offense, went AWOL and then had yet another surgery on his delicate knee.

But the Knicks, with a $30.3 million cap hold on him, could fit him into their payroll. If they renounced him they would still only have approximately $14 million to spend, a figure which would not likely get them in play for Lowry or Hill. So if not Rose, the Knicks will have to turn to the next tier - a group that also was seeing names quickly land elsewhere.

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Patty Mills was back with the Spurs on a four-year, $50 million deal and Sean Livingston was returning to Golden State. So the names still intriguing on the free agent market included the likes of Rajon Rondo, who was cut loose by the Bulls rather than guarantee a huge salary jump. But they could think stop-gap type of player and did agree to bring back Ron Baker, who announced on twitter shortly after midnight that he would be back. Baker was already hanging around the Knicks’ summer league team in Orlando.

With general manager Steve Mills running things in the wake of Phil Jackson’s firing the Knicks must decide whether or not to pursue Jackson’s plan to get younger. The problem with that strategy is it comes on the heels of last summer’s moves that veered toward a win-now plot - trading for Rose and signing Joakim Noah, Courtney Lee and Brandon Jennings. With Carmelo Anthony still here - although ESPN reported that there had been some talks with Houston about a way to get him to join Chris Paul and the Rockets had been initiated - the Knicks core remains an aging group.

There was also an ESPN report that the Knicks were setting up a meeting with Phoenix restricted free agent Alan Williams. The hard-working power forward arrived with the Suns from the Chinese Basketball Association after Knicks’ current coach Jeff Hornacek was already fired in Phoenix.

With Jrue Holiday back in New Orleans, the Knicks were still hopeful of hanging onto their own free agent, his brother, Justin Holiday. The two had talked about playing together but the Knicks do hold his Bird Rights, allowing them to go over the cap to pay him up to $8.1 million.

Email: popper@northjersey.com