{"id":91125,"date":"2024-08-18T17:20:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T21:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=91125"},"modified":"2024-08-18T17:20:01","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T21:20:01","slug":"new-york-knicks-auditioned-3-year-nba-big-man-omer-yurtseven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/18\/new-york-knicks-auditioned-3-year-nba-big-man-omer-yurtseven\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Knicks &#8220;Auditioned&#8221; 3-Year NBA Big Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A little over a month after getting cut by the Utah Jazz, big man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/yurtsom01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Omer Yurtseven<\/a> is still a free agent. However, according to NBA insider Marc Stein, Yurtseven is still receiving interest from teams around the league. Stein recently wrote that the New York Knicks &#8220;auditioned&#8221; the Turkish native. However, he also clarified that the team chose not to sign him, likely indicating that a contract with the Knicks is not an option for Yurtseven (<a href=\"https:\/\/marcstein.substack.com\/p\/all-the-latest-around-the-league\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">subscription required<\/a>).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The Knicks recently auditioned free agent big man Omer Yurtseven, among others, but did not elect to sign him. Panathinaikos of Greece has publicly stated interest in bringing Yurtseven to the EuroLeague.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yurtseven appeared in 48 games for the Jazz last season. In those games, he averaged 4.6 points and 4.3 rebounds. Additionally, he shot 53.8% from the field. The 26-year-old also spent the first two seasons of his career with the Miami Heat.<\/p>\n<h2>New York Knicks &#8220;Auditioned&#8221; Omer Yurtseven<\/h2>\n<h3>The Knicks&#8217; Big Man Situation<\/h3>\n<p>This summer, the Knicks lost center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harteis01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a>, who joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/2024-nba-free-agency-thunder-add-former-knicks-center\/\" target=\"_self\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> as a free agent. However, they guaranteed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/simsje01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jericho Sims<\/a>&#8216; contract and re-signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/achiupr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Precious Achiuwa<\/a>. Both players, along with returning All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/randlju01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julius Randle<\/a>, can play center or forward. Currently, the Knicks&#8217; starting center will likely be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/robinmi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mitchell Robinson<\/a>, who has been with the team since 2018. By no means do the Knicks need Yurtseven on the roster. However, at 7&#8217;0&#8243; tall, he would have provided great size to the team.<\/p>\n<h3>What is Next for Omer Yurtseven?<\/h3>\n<p>As Stein mentioned, a stint in the EuroLeague is an option for Yurtseven. Recently, Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman spoke about wanting the team to bring in Yurtseven. However, he also expressed concerns about &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurohoops.net\/en\/euroleague\/1706247\/panathinaikos-considering-omer-yurtseven\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how it will reflect on the court.<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cGetting a very important player like Omer Faruk and making that transfer would give us great power, on paper,\u201d Ataman said to Ajanspor. \u201cHowever, we have concerns about how it will reflect on the court. We are thinking about it, I mean he\u2019s on our radar.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ataman clarified that he believes adding Yurtseven could &#8220;disrupt the balance of the team.&#8221; However, he praised Yurtseven&#8217;s talents and thinks he could do well in Europe.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe can\u2019t add an ordinary player. I\u2019m a little worried that the player we will add will disrupt the balance of the team. Because we have a system there. I am thinking of not making the transfer at the beginning of the season. Sarp Ataman [Ergin Ataman\u2019s son] has a very good name in mind. We\u2019ve been thinking about this player for two days. Omer Faruk Yurtseven left the NBA and is talking [to] the European teams. He was also offered to us. He\u2019s a very good player and I like him. I think he\u2019ll do very well in Europe.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Last Word on Omer Yurtseven<\/h3>\n<p>Yurtseven is a talented big man who could provide a lot of value to any team, NBA or overseas. With there being plenty of offseason remaining, it would not be a shock if the big man finds himself on an NBA team by the start of next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A little over a month after getting cut by the Utah Jazz, big man Omer Yurtseven is still a free agent. However, according to NBA insider Marc Stein, Yurtseven is still receiving interest from teams around the league. Stein recently wrote that the New York Knicks &#8220;auditioned&#8221; the Turkish native. However, he also clarified that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":71906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,62,12,3],"tags":[993,4386,510,1616,2488,3148],"class_list":["post-91125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","tag-isaiah-hartenstein","tag-jericho-sims","tag-julius-randle","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-omer-yurtseven","tag-precious-achiuwa"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}