Is Donovan Mitchell the right guy for the NY Knicks?
Admittedly, Mitchell is hard to defend above both Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from an on-court basketball perspective.
For starters, Mitchell is about three years older than either of the other two names on this list.
Statistically speaking, Mitchell is obviously a great player, but he lags behind both Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander in many of the key statistics discussed in the previous slides.
And yet, he’s number one on this list. How can that be?
Culture.
He’s a New York native. He’s a Mets fan. He pals around with Immanuel Quickley.
He’s an orange and blue culture avalanche.
Think back to how jazzed (pun definitely intended) we all were about the Kemba Walker acquisition this summer. He was effusive with praise for the Knicks organization. He glowed. He grinned. His pride was visible.
Knicks fans were the biscuits, Kemba Walker love was the gravy, and we cleaned our plates.
Adding Mitchell would be like having your Granny’s biscuits and gravy for the first time all over again. No impostors can compare.
On top of that, he’s also just a good dude.
I bought those shoes because of it. (And because they’re dripping with Spider-Man references, so my two geek obsessions collided. The first player to make Batman-themed shoes can have exactly one year’s salary from me.)
It also feels far more likely that he’d potentially ask to be traded. The seeds have already been planted.
It’s an emotional decision rather than a data-driven one, but Donovan Mitchell should be number one on this list. He’d be a fantastic Knick.