New York Knicks: The Road to Respectability

The Knicks are going from the laughingstock of the league to a respectable franchise.

For every story, there is a beginning, middle, and end. The New York Knicks are currently at the beginning of their long journey of being a respected basketball franchise. It’s still very early on in the rebuild but at least they’re out of the prologue (Remember Krisnots Betryalgis). While they are still looking for the franchise’s bonafide superstar cornerstone, they at the very least have a 26-year first-time All-Star as well as a handful of young guys who look to be high-level NBA contributors for many years to come.

This is more of a fun read that looks back at some of the events that led to this point in the season and less about the Xs and Os of players and potential moves to be made. Let’s take a break from the playoff talks and the trade rumors to take a look at how the Knicks somehow have exited the All-Star break a winning team. We’re Knicks fans, let’s appreciate this season (we haven’t done that in a while) for what is and dive into why the fan base is so optimistic about the team.

The Knicks’ Rebuild Begins

Any team that attempts to be competitive has a moment where they realize they just don’t have what it takes to be an NBA champion. The New York Knicks realized this in 2017 when they traded Carmelo Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder for  Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a second-round draft pick. At the time this was an underwhelming haul and in retrospect, it still is a very light package for a team’s cornerstone player and their perennial all-star. Carmelo was just 32 years old and coming off his 7th straight All-Star season with the team and averaged 22 points a game.

The silver lining is that this was the real first step to building the young core the Knicks currently have. That lowly second-round draft pick ended up becoming the steal of the draft when they selected Mitchell Robinson with the 36th pick in the 2018 draft. He is currently viewed as the Knicks center of the future and is a big reason why the Knicks have the 2nd rated defense in the league (shout-out Nerlens Noel). His presence on the court has caused opponents to be wary when driving to the rim and allows his teammates to trust that there is a second line of defense if their assignment gets past them.

There is still the debate of what to do with Robinson after this season, his next contract has been a point of controversy amongst the front office and fan base, but he has no doubt proved he is an NBA caliber player worthy of an extension. Assuming the Knicks resign him, that gives them one part of the core in place. Let’s see how the rest of the young team was assembled.