The New York Knicks are reportedly eyeing to select Kentucky's Willie Cauley-Stein as their first round no. 4 pick on June 25 at Brooklyn.

While New York basketball fans are obviously disappointed at the fact that their supposed to be no. 2 pick was taken away from them by the Los Angeles Lakers during the May 19 draft lottery, there is really nothing they can do about it right now. And so does Knicks president and former multi-titled coach Phil Jackson.

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There were widespread hearsays that the Zen Master wants to have Karl-Anthony Towns, and that Towns also wants to play for New York (according to an article at Slam Online) But picking fourth in the first round? It is most likely that he is already gone.

And so the latest speculations are that Jackson and the Knicks wants Towns college teammate Cauley-Stein.

As per Blake Murphy of The Score, the Knicks are strongly after Cauley-Stein as Jackson wants "a strong defender in New York" in the mold of Tyson Chandler. Towns would really have been the first option if they want that, but the 7-foot, 240-pound Wildcat is not bad as well. The latter may even be more talented at the defensive end, the write up suggests, while the former is more known as an offensive type of guy.

With Carmelo Anthony, Jose Calderon, and Andrea Bargnani taking care of the offense, it makes much more sense to draft Cauley-Stein for the Knicks to have a stronger presence in the middle. Currently, they are certainly lacking at the center position and drafting "Trill" would help augment that void left by Chandler when he was traded to Dallas last year. Thus, Knicks fans do not have to feel bad after all.

However, ESPN's Chad Ford believes that Jackson is not known to be fond of using draft picks to strengthen his teams and might be more inclined to trade it for a valuable veteran if the opportunity presents itself. The former Chicago Bulls and L.A. Lakers coach has never really experienced drafting a new player because of the success he has had with his former teams. 

TagsNBA 2015, NBA news, NBA News 2015, NBA rumors, NBA Rumors 2015, Willie Cauley-Stein