The New York Knicks are finally back to their former glory of being a top team in the Eastern Conference, and they’re making moves. There’s a lot of speculation about how far the Knicks can go into the postseason being led by Jalen Brunson, a Villanova alumnus. In many people’s eyes, including mine, he shows promise to be the best player on a championship team. Although this is up for debate, as Becky Hammon, former professional basketball player and current professional coach, said, “I love Jalen Brunson, but you’re going to put him on the level of a 1A (best player on a championship team)? You’re putting him with Giannis, Embiid, Steph?.” She proceeded to say the Knicks “don’t have a dude,” and they can’t win a championship because of it.
Jalen Brunson improves every aspect of the Knicks. In 2022, the year before acquiring Brunson, the Knicks’ record was 37-45, and they were the 11th seed in the East. In just one year, Brunson led the Knicks to a 47-35 record and they were the 5th seed in the East.
This season, he’s averaging 26 points and 6 assists per game. The entire offensive structure of the team runs through him. Although he’s been playing at the top of his game, he still believes he needs to prove his worth because he wasn’t named as a Starter for the NBA All Star game. In my opinion, this is outrageous.
The Knicks will certainly benefit from Brunson playing with this extra motivation. In addition to Brunson having an incredible season, he also has a great supporting cast. However, it definitely needs tweaking before the Knicks truly become championship caliber.
Julius Randle, Brunson’s co-star, is having a great season as well, averaging 24 points and almost 10 rebounds per game. Indeed, Randle is a fantastic player, but he is also an emotional one and he loses his head on occasion, like the time he gave Knicks fans a thumbs down when he was upset. Randle is an amazing scorer, but he disrupts the flow of the offense a lot because of his tendency to hold the ball. This slows the offense down and allows the defense to get set. Although it works to his benefit sometimes, the impact it has on the team is evident. This messes with team chemistry and breeds resentment. While he seems to have started to address this issue, it remains a detriment to the team.
There is speculation that Leon Rose, the president of the Knicks organization, is willing to trade Randle for a player who would be more complimentary to the Brunson-led offense and also put the ball in the basket. The Knicks are keeping an eye on Donovan Mitchell, who has openly voiced his desire to come home to his native city and play at the Garden. Mitchell’s contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers is up after this season, so the Knicks may not even need to give up Randle to obtain him.
Furthermore, Mitchell, Leon Rose and his brother Sam all belong to the same agency, CAA Sports. This commonality makes it much more likely for Mitchell to join the Knicks because the more involved a team is with a player’s agency, the more likely that player is to get traded to that team. With that in mind, CAA also has Joel Embiid, Devin Booker, Karl Anthony Towns, and more star caliber players for the Knicks and Leon to pursue. The Knicks are already making moves, as they recently acquired OG Anunoby, an outstanding defender whom the Knicks desperately needed. Anunoby is a lights out shooter, and the Knicks were struggling with their 3 point efficiency. In this deal, they gave the Toronto Raptors a lot of pieces. The Raptors received RJ Barrett, who the Knicks had selected 3rd overall in the 2019 draft and have been building up ever since, along with Immanuel Quickley, a former second round draft pick who has been lighting it up this year despite not being in the starting lineup.
As a Knicks fan, I agreed with their choice to replace RJ for Anunoby, but I had a harder time swallowing the Quickley trade. Quickly has been having an amazing season and has been one of the most fun players to watch. However, his contract is expiring, and he is expected to ask for over 25 million dollars. For a player who only came off the Knicks bench as the 6th man, they didn’t have many options.
Adding to the Knicks buying spree is a young and valuable big man, Precious Achiuwa, a backup center, taking the place of Mitchell Robinson who fractured his left ankle and underwent a season ending surgery. To round out the trade, the Knicks received Malachi Flynn, and used him in a trade to get two more role players.
This was the first step to eventually obtaining a star, either through trade or free agency. The bench players are an important component to any successful team, and the Knicks need more of everything out of their bench. Someone needs to step up and pick up the scoring slack that the Knicks lost by trading Quickley.
OG Anunoby has been playing 40+ minutes a game, which is an absurd amount, as there are only 48 minutes in a game. Since joining the Knicks, he has been playing at an MVP (Most Valuable Player) level, which means he’s playing at the level of the best players in the world right now. He’s been the spark the Knicks needed, on both offense and defense.
The Knicks are now 11-2 since the trade, and through the first 13 games, they had the best record in the league. Isaiah Hartenstein, the Knicks backup center, who shares minutes almost evenly with Mitchell Robinson, has stepped up massively and filled the role of starting center with Robinson being injured. Precious Achiuwa is filling in the role of backup center quite well, averaging 8.5 points 7.5 rebounds a block and a steal in 25 minutes per game. Jericho Sims, the other backup big, is giving Precious a run for his money, though, which is great because they are fighting for minutes and pressuring each other to perform, as otherwise they will be benched.
The Villanova alumni alongside Brunson, Donte Divinchenzo and Josh Hart, have been performing well. Donte is the starting shooting guard, and is averaging 16.6 points in the last 5 games. In the first game without Randle who suffered a dislocated shoulder, he put up 28 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Hart is the heart of the team. He plays shooting guard, small forward, and power forward when we need him to. He is aggressive, hustles, gets every loose ball, every long rebound, and dives on the floor when needed, He is every coach’s dream. All teams need a player like him, and he has been having an outstanding season. While Brunson got the Villanova gang back together, one key member is missing. Mikal Bridges was a prominent player on that Villanova Wildcat roster, and is now the best player right across the bridge in Brooklyn. He would be a great addition to the Knicks as well, as the chemistry between them is already there, and he’s a great scorer who will fit in with the Brunson led offense.
With the loss of Quickley, the sharpshooter Deuce Mcbride has risen to the occasion and stepped into the role of backup point guard. He has been shooting the ball really well and efficiently, becoming a mini spark off the bench to try and light up the empty space that Quickley used to fill.
The Knicks made another trade, sending Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier, Malachi Flynn, Ryan Arcidiacono, and two second round picks for Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdonavic. Burks has a history with the Knicks, as he was a solid role player for us in recent history, with his uncanny knack for putting the ball in the basket and holding his own on the defensive end. Bogdonavic was averaging 20 points per game this season on the Pistons, and he’s looking to take some pressure off Brunson scoring-wise.
Gilbert Arenas, a former all star, said that The Knicks are one of the biggest market teams in all of sports. They currently are spending over 160 million dollars per seasion. Arenas claims that with this absurd spending, they should always be a championship team. I both agree and disagree with this take. The Knicks front office is terrible. James Dolan is star repellent. Nobody wants to play in the “basketball mecca” because of him. The Knicks organization, alongside fans, are hoping Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle are changing this stigma, clearing the air around one of the “world’s greatest stages” – staying true to Madison Square Garden’s mission statement, and bringing another big name star and championship to the greatest city in the world.
Becky Hammon, former professional basketball player and current professional coach, said, “I love Jalen Brunson, but you’re going to put him on the level of a 1A (best player on a championship team)? You’re putting him with Giannis, Embiid, Steph?”