NBA Trade Deadline portfolio: New York Knicks
Let’s get one thing straight, right out of the gate, because I know why you came here. You think I’m going to tell you that I’ve devised some cockamamie scheme, some Marx Brothers-esque hoodwink, to finagle top value out of a desperate, borderline title-contender for a 33-year-old scoring machine whose gears turn just a little more slowly, whose motor needs more oil and whose combustion chamber has to be a little more active in order for him to do what he’s been doing for a decade and a half.
You think I’m going to say trading Carmelo Anthony for someone like Kevin Love, or Blake Griffin, is a normal and logical thing for a team that isn’t the New York Knicks to do. The problem with that, of course, is that the other team involved is the New York Knicks, who likely think this is possible. The Knicks, whose organizational issues trickle down like the most corrosive acid rain, are in a perpetually troubling spot courtesy of a paranoid owner who has feuded with many beloved stars.
In addition to alienating just about every basketball fan in the tri-state area, the Knicks under James Dolan have constantly underperformed, averaging just over 34 wins per season since he took over in 1999, a 43.2 percent mark, and making the playoffs only six times in the past nineteen seasons. Yet, we’re all always talking about the Knicks. Inexplicably, they’re always on national television, including right now, against Russell Westbrook (which – give every Knicks television slot to the Thunder, from now until Westbrook either leaves or disintegrates in a ball of fire). I used to think it was due to the ostensibly advantageous position of being in a huge media market which, while still true, becomes diluted by the day in an increasingly connected digital age.
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No, the reason we continue to discuss the Knicks, aside from watching Kristaps Porzingis blossom, is because of how warped their view of themselves is, and thus how they believe they need to manage their image in order to maintain it. This is precisely the problem: they are unwilling to do the things necessary of becoming a better on-court product with the pieces they acquire, and they routinely fail to recognize that until it’s far too late. For example, in the summer, they traded Robin Lopez, a perfectly complementary center who FiveThirtyEight’s Chris Herring correctly dubbed “arguably the most consistent player on the team” a season ago, for Derrick Rose and then signed Joakim Noah to an absolutely hideous contract.
Apart from trading the owner, something I recommend very highly to non-Dolan Knicks management if they can wrangle a second round pick or stashed European player for him, the Knicks are largely dealing with diminishing return-type situations as they approach the Feb. 23 trade deadline. Team president Phil Jackson is rather openly antagonizing Carmelo Anthony, which does not especially strike me as the kind of action a shrewd basketball mind in an executive position would undertake. Anthony’s predicament is particularly agitating to the team, as the no-trade clause Jackson gave him two summers ago makes him the sole arbiter of where he could feasibly go in a trade.
The most likely suitors for Anthony are the Clippers, whose own salary cap situation would likely require a third team’s involvement, and the Cavaliers, whose seeming inability to trade for Anthony became much more compelling with Kevin Love’s injury. Both teams have various foibles in future draft picks, and the Clippers can’t provide a player of immense and immediate impact on the scale of Anthony.
Derrick Rose could be traded, provided the team receiving him does not have a player with his rookie contract extension. Joakim Noah’s contract makes trading him unlikely. Still, New York ought to call around the league and gauge interest on those two, even if it amounts to nothing more than an exercise in telecommunication capabilities in 2017.
To sing along with the choir of fans and observers, the most important thing the Knicks absolutely need to do is cater to the development of Kristaps Porzingis. With budding players such as Willy Hernangomez and Mindaugus Kuzminskas, as well as the two-way fluency of Courtney Lee and, once again, their own first round draft pick this year, the Knicks have the foundation to transition to a rebuild while maintaining an entertaining team. Dolan’s, and, by extension, Jackson’s, refusal to do this will put a strain on the Knicks, but that’s nothing new.
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Improving the defense and getting younger should be the Knicks’ priority heading into the trade deadline. Instead, they will likely sit on the fence, acting as both a buyer and seller, exchanging a dollar for two quarters and trading several first round draft picks through 2023 for the expiring contract of J.J. Redick.