On January 2nd, the Knicks won an early afternoon home game. All five starters scored in double digits, led by their 28-year-old potential star forward. The Knicks have a good number of exciting young talent – all five of their starting players are under the age of 30 – and have a winning record at this point in a season for the first time in 10 years, which is reason to believe the future is bright.
On January 2nd, the Knicks won an early afternoon home game. All five starters scored in double digits, led by their 28-year-old potential star forward. The Knicks have a good number of exciting young talent – all five of their starting players are under the age of 30 – and have a winning record at this point in a season for the first time in 10 years, which is reason to believe the future is bright.
Unless you’re the impatient type, you’re reading the same paragraph twice. There is a reason for that. One of those paragraphs talks about where the franchise is as of January 3, 2023. The other talks about where it got to on January 3, 2011.
On that day, New York edged Indiana behind Amar’e Stoudemire’s 26. The other players – Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler and Landry Fields – contributed a mixture of passing, perimeter shooting and smart defense. Replace “Indiana” with “Phoenix”, STAT with Julius Randle and the other starters with Jalen Brunson, Mitchell Robinson, Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes and the parallels remain.
A month later, New York swung a deal for Carmelo Anthony. We know how it went this way: On an individual level, the Bucket Collecting Bucket Bucket lived up to legend. Anyone who witnessed their 62-point night remember the special feeling that night. Most pros will also remember it coming in a year the team didn’t make the playoffs. You could argue there were a lot of points where the Donnie Walsh/Mike D’Antoni Knicks lost their way. Maybe trade milo? Did I pick Chauncey Billups up, then oops before he plays another minute for them? Trading for Tyson Chandler? Giving STAT maximum hold without injury protection?
I’m not sure there is one answer. Mistakes, like orgies, tend to come in waves. For me, the offense they committed against the basketball gods is clear: You shouldn’t place your hopes in one great player, and then trade most of your depth with another that, while undeniably, doesn’t only enhance the greatness of the first. But I can’t help but work against it. The moment Nick’s title squad really took off was when they traded Hall of Famer center Walt Bellamy for Dave DeBusschere. Not because they cheated the Pistons, but because they let Willis Reed move to center, let their best players play roles that suit their individual strengths, and promote the collective good.
Stoudemire’s greatest success as Nick came as Little Ball 5, a role that became extinct once Chandler was acquired. Milo’s New York salad days came as a mini 4 ball, which only happened due to Stoudemire’s injuries. Those who lived through the Chandler/Stoudemire/Anthony minutes remember them with the gloom of the Cold War. A lot of ideas make sense until you run into some reality. The following year, 2012, was the only time these “Big Three” played meaningful time together. in a Approximately 800 shared minutesthey had a net rating of -1.0. Replace STAT with rookie Iman Shumpert in the same number of minutes and the rating jumped eight points.
Last night Donovan Mitchell played one of the greatest scoring games in league history. Mitchell was almost the Knicks’ talking milo, had they been willing to make Grimes the new Timofey Mozgov and throw him into the bargain (I promise I’ll stop with the parallels now). A few friends asked me today if Mitchell’s 71-point night made me regret the Knicks didn’t push him. Mama didn’t raise any fools, boy. Don’t you know how inflation works? 71 is just the new 62.
Trading for Mitchell meant cutting the role of Galen Bronson before he played Nick a minute later. Maybe it’s a New York City thing, or a New York City corporate thing, that you think you can just toss in one big name after another and it will automatically translate into more profits, more wins, and more eyeballs. It never works. The addition of Patrick Ewing to Bill Cartwright didn’t help either player’s game. Trading Ewing to Glen Rice when you already had Alan Houston and Latrell Sprewell never made sense. The pairing of Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis created the more rowdy “New Clyde & Pearl!” We talk more than I did any wins. We have already discussed STAT and Melo. We did. When we were children we spoke like a child, we understood like a child, we thought like a child: but as adults we put the childish things away. Ideally.
Leon Rose has been hired to make what Nick fans have been told is their white whale: a superstar. He’s been clear about how this happens: It’s not through the draft – too many variables – not via free agency – until/unless the Knicks are good on their own first, there’s no reason for any self-respecting superstar to come here when there are more franchises Warm and profitable in states with low income tax, or none at all. So then it should be a trade, eh?
No.
How many current title contenders have emerged due to a huge star trade? How about nothing? Boston is built on the back of a once-in-a-lifetime trade. Milwaukee did win a title after making a big deal for a superstar, but Jrue Holiday was the final piece after they really stepped up to be well–but not quite–there. Same with Philadelphia and James Harden, and Jimmy Butler if you want to go back earlier. Cleveland is trying to do an early version of those deals with Mitchell. Brooklyn traded a technical for Kevin Durant, but it wasn’t their doing; Golden State brokered a deal Because they don’t want to lose KD for nothing. The only team I can think of who tried to build a championship out of the star trade were the LA Clippers, and even that got an asterisk because they knew the massive package they were giving up for Paul George was the price of getting it for free. Star agent Kawhi Leonard.
Nix has something going for it. They should stay in this cycle and see where it leads them. Super Idol is supposed to be the franchise’s response to not winning a title in a long time. You know what the Knicks haven’t done for a long time? Be good for a while. So try to be good for a while, and see how the electrified MSG that serves as an actual home arena feature hits players who are too young to have any memories of what happens, and see what happens.
Tom Thibodeau is in his third season and has a winning record. Besides Mike Woodson, Jeff Van Gundy, and Pat Riley, I don’t think any Nick coach has done that in 50 years. The team has a lot of redundant draft picks docked to rig and no one cares. Contractually, the old navigator would have to find albatrosses elsewhere; Not a bad deal on the books. I know – Believe meI know—the ways a .500 team’s ups and downs can affect you. Only this time, please, Knicks, be a little patient this time. Just a little longer.