Should the NY Knicks consider this Jalen Brunson swap?
The 2018 NBA Draft‘s second round is one of the strongest I’ve seen in quite a while.
Jalen Brunson is certainly one of the better names to come to of the later stages of that draft, but there are some other strong players that joined him.
Names like Devonte’ Graham, Gary Trent Jr, Jarred Vanderbilt, and of course, our very own Mitchell Robinson.
Now, the Knicks and Mavs are a lot alike in that they both did well in the 2nd round that season and have a decision to make on the futures of both Mitchell Robinson and Jalen Brunson.
Robinson likely won’t cost as much as Brunson will on his next deal but with him being banged up on a somewhat consistent basis, the Knicks’ front office may be reluctant to pay him big bucks.
Especially when they just paid Nerlens Noel a nice-sized contract and they can also get players like Jericho Sims at the 58th pick that can do about 70% of what Mitchell Robinson can.
In a day and age where the stretch 5 is at a premium, traditional big men aren’t being paid like they used to.
So essentially, the Knicks and Mavs swap their problems straight up.
The Mavs don’t know if they want to commit to Brunson, the Knicks don’t know if they want to commit to Robinson.
Especially at their asking potential asking prices.
As we know, the Knicks have been looking for a solid field general to run the offense for what seems like since the dawn of time.
The Mavs on the other hand have been quietly one of the better defensive teams in the league this season, sitting with a defensive rating of 106.4 which is good for the 4th best in the league.
And yet, they rank 16th in the league in defensive rebounding and 28th in blocked shots per game.
Two areas Mitch would help fix immediately.
Now, with that said, while a trade for Mitch would fix a huge hole for the Mavericks, it would in turn create another one.
Aside from Luka and Brunson, Dallas doesn’t have any other true on-ball creators.
So they’d either have to make another trade for a Point Guard or…