Opinion
Start spreading the news, NBA free agents will be leaving soon to be a part of it. They’ll want to play ball in a city that never sleeps after the franchise has made a brand new start of it: New York Knicks, New York.
This franchise has finally found the missing ingredient of respectability and when the next marquee player is restless and looking for a team with championship capabilities, the Knicks will be top of the list, head of the heap, king of the hill.
Those little town blues created by a meddling owner have melted away since 2020 when born-into-money billionaire Jim Dolan hired former agents Leon Rose and William Wesley, aka “Worldwide Wes”, to run the franchise even though they had no experience in the role following the failed Phil Jackson experiment.
The Knicks have rebuilt their image from incompetence to a professionally run franchise and the team is surging on the back of a nine-game winning streak to be fifth in the Eastern Conference at 39-28.
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They are now within sight of overtaking Cleveland, just a couple of games back in the standings, to snare home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Jalen Brunson with Julius Randle. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
Just making the post-season looked iffy at the start of the season after missing out altogether last year following on from their surprise run to the second round in 2020-21.
Unlike two years ago, this Knicks resurgence has a solid foundation.
Not in the form of Julius Randle, although he has recaptured the form which made him an All-NBA Second Team selection two years ago.
Point guard Jalen Brunson’s arrival from Dallas has given the Knicks what they have craved for decades – a playmaker who can organise the team on the floor who is not afraid to take the big shots himself.
The 25-year-old became a burgeoning star last year in Dallas but the Mavericks didn’t cough up the cash to keep him and with his father Rick – who had a season with Adelaide in the NBL in 1996 – on the coaching staff, the Knicks secured his signature in suspiciously quick time when free agency began.
When the $104 million four-year deal was announced, there was an outcry from some Knicks fans and the usual outrage merchants in the media who questioned whether he was worth the investment.
He’s responded with a leap from 16.3 points per game to 23.9 as well as further career-bests in assists (6.2), steals (0.9) and three-point percentage (41.1) even though his game time has only gone up by three minutes on average.
Right now it’s looking like a great value deal and when the salary cap spikes in 2025 the final year of Brunson’s contract which decreases annually from $27m to $24m will be the steal of the NBA if he continues on his current trajectory.
Brunson sat out the trip to Boston earlier this week with a foot injury and Immanuel Quickley stepped up with 38 points as the Knicks upset the Celtics 131-129 in double overtime.
The nine-game bubble finally burst a couple of days later when the Brunson-less Knicks had a “scheduled loss” at home to Charlotte.
With the Celtics and Milwaukee the true contenders in the East and Philadelphia likely the only other team that can challenge for a berth in the NBA Finals, the best hope for the Knicks is their second-round appearance in three years.
But this time, the future is so much brighter because they are now a destination.
Being one of the two biggest markets in the league, that should have always been the case but time and time again in recent years, superstar free agents like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard wouldn’t even consider joining them even though it would have magnified their profile exponentially.
Julius Randle. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Durant famously lambasted the Knicks in 2019 when explaining why he joined little brother Brooklyn as Dolan’s years of mismanagement turned the storied franchise into a story of tragicomedy.
“Fans expect players to join the Knicks because of their brand but players have grown up watching the Knicks suck and they aren’t cool anymore.”
The Knicks are not only cool again but after developing their draft picks like RJ Barrett, Quickley, Quentin Grimes, Mitchell Robinson and, to a lesser extent, Obi Toppin, they have the cache to pull off a superstar trade.
They had the opportunity to pry Donovan Mitchell away from Danny Ainge’s tear-down and rebuild in Utah last off-season but baulked at the asking price and Cleveland swooped.
Mitchell was an All-Star starter and is having the best season of his career but the Knicks can aim even higher.
The two big targets are Joel Embiid and Luka Doncic.
Joel Embiid with James Harden. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Neither superstar will be easy to land but there is a path to NYC for both of them.
Embiid is the last remaining blue-chip asset from The Process in Philadelphia after Ben Simmons was sent packing and the 76ers’ other lottery picks failed to live up to their promise.
James Harden, who was the upgrade the Sixers received when they dealt Simmons, could walk in the off-season with reports emerging of a potential return to Houston for the final years of his career.
The Sixers are a chance but the third-best one at that in the East and if they flame out again in the playoffs, coach Doc Rivers is likely to be canned and, apart from Tyrese Maxey, there’s not much else keeping Embiid in the City of Brotherly Love if Harden forces his way out of yet another franchise.
Philly may be reluctant to trade with one of their oldest rivals within the Atlantic Division but if the Knicks’ package is the best, 76ers GM Daryl Morey has made a career out of not following traditional ways of thinking.
Doncic’s tenure in Dallas is the other MVP candidate being closely monitored by Knicks fans.
The Slovenian maestro clearly loves the limelight and although he’s only just turned 24 and only in his fifth season, the Mavericks need to become true title contenders quickly or offer hope that a title is just around the corner.
After putting several current and future assets in the Kyrie Irving trade, the Mavs (34-44) have slipped to eighth in the Western Conference after Thursday’s loss to New Orleans.
Irving could walk as a free agent in the off-season – some fellow called LeBron James is apparently keen to reunite with him at the Lakers – and even if he does sign a new deal with Dallas, there’s little to inspire confidence in Doncic that the team is on course for a championship anytime soon (apart from Boomers young gun Josh Green’s upside, of course).
Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Another current star could grow restless and suddenly loom on the Knicks’ radar in the next year or so.
As great as he’s been, and still is, the ship has sailed on Damian Lillard being that knight in shining armour for New York. Unfortunately his loyalty to Portland has not been reciprocated in the form of a top-calibre support cast.
LIllard turns 33 in July and with the Trail Blazers treading water in mid-table mediocrity yet again, his greatest hope for snaring a championship ring in the twilight of his career is becoming a second option with a young star like Chris Paul did at Phoenix with Devin Booker … and now getting Kevin Durant joining in on the fun too.
For Knicks fans waiting for the team’s first title since 1973, it’s always been the hope that’s killed them.
But now they have more than just hope – a functional franchise with a team on the rise and the distinct possibility of finally attracting a superstar free agent to the Big Apple.
What could go wrong? Who’s the owner again?
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