For Ricky Davis to actually remain with the New York Knicks once that training camp is over seems highly unlikely, but the Knicks are giving the 34-year old to prove he has what it takes to make it back to the NBA, and if anything, it should be interesting to watch it unfold.
Davis hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2009-2010 season, when he played 36 games for the Los Angeles Clippers. Since then he’s been in Europe (Türk Telekom, Chorale Roanne), China (Jiangsu Dragons), Puerto Rico (Piratas de Quebradillas) and the D-League, but has rarely been mentioned as someone NBA teams are looking at.
Logically, he shouldn’t be able to make it. Davis was barely a legitimate NBA player when he left, and it’s hard to believe that four years out of the league have made him any better. He was a pretty explosive scorer between 2000 and 2007, relying almost entirely on his athleticism and ability to finish near the rim, while posting decent three point numbers (36.1% from beyond the arc), but was always too selfish and too lazy on defense to take his game into the All-Star level.
Without that athleticism, Davis isn’t a good enough shooter to find his way back into the league as a role player off the bench who is solely there to hit three pointers. He’s also not good enough to play as a shooting guard or small forward, especially because without his speed, there’s nothing he brings to the table on both ends of the floor any team would want.
The only things that might give him some sort of edge is experience, but Davis was never a high IQ type of player, and the likeliest scenario is him leaving the Knicks’ training camp empty handed, and possibly making it the last time he tries to make it onto an NBA team.