The Phildadelphia 76ers made a move last week when they traded a couple of second round picks to the New Orleans Pelicans for Ish Smith. By acquiring Smith the 76ers had to make another move and get rid of somebody already on the roster and they somewhat surprisingly cut Tony Wroten. Wroten is now available as a free agent after clearing waivers but he is drawing a lot of interest from teams including the New York Knicks, according to Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors.
Wroten led the 76ers last season with his 16.9 points per game but was only able to play in 30 games as he suffered a torn ACL. That same injury forced Wroten to miss the beginning of this season and when he finally came back he struggled mightily in eight games with Philadelphia as he was averaging 8.4 points on 34 percent shooting from the field.
Wroten is still a talented player that likely needs time to work his way back into playing shape and at 22 years old it is no surprise he is drawing a lot of interest. The Knicks make a lot of sense for Wroten on a few different fronts, not the least of which is they need help in the backcourt. The Knicks level of interest in Wroten is unknown right now, according to Ian Begley of ESPN New York, but they are looking for guards via free agency, trades or even in the D-League.
Wroten is currently in the final year of his rookie scale contract and will make just over $2.1 million this season. The Knicks currently have an open roster spot meaning that if they brought someone like Wroten in they wouldn't have to make another roster move to make room for him.
While no other teams were specifically named in the report that Wroten was drawing interest, Dan Woike of The Orange Count Register noted that the Los Angeles Clippers previously had interest in Wroten last season. Woike also noted that the Clippers current roster is at 15 which means bringing him in would require another move making it an unlikely match.
Overall it doesn't seem like Wroten will be spending too much more time as a free agent based on the fact that there are "several teams" interested in him. The 22 year old point guard was a first round pick back in 2012 by the Memphis Grizzlies and is very big for his position at 6 foot-6. Wroten needs to work on his efficiency and outside shot but there is a lot to like about him and his potential.
