What does the improbable Heat Finals run mean for Knicks trade prospects?
By Max Hoover
The 2023 Miami Heat are the second team in NBA history to reach the NBA Finals as the eighth seed. Everyone reading this already knows that the first team to do so was the 1999 New York Knicks.
The NBA landscape has changed dramatically since 1999. Commissioner Adam Silver had to be ecstatic with how this year’s playoffs transpired. Not only was it a coronation for arguably the league’s best player, but also a season where a play-in team was just three wins away from a title.
Silver got to see his baby take its first steps. Fostering that level of parity is exactly why the play-in was created. How many Eastern Conference front offices can make the argument that they have enough to make their own Finals run next season? Five?
And how does that number change if a team makes slight tweaks? Is it seven now? Ten?
Will any teams be willing to trade a star to the New York Knicks?
The same principle applies to the Western Conference as well. We’re well past the days of prohibitive favorites like the 90s Bulls or the Cavaliers/Warriors battles of the 2010s.
In that kind of environment, GMs should be stingy with star players. The trade block this summer will feel like a Black Friday run on Tickle-Me Elmos. A whole lot of buyers, but not many sellers.
One team that is publicly selling assets this summer is the Washington Wizards. Bradley Beal has already been traded, Kyle Kuzma declined his option to become a free agent, and then there’s Kristaps Porzingis as well as the lack of exciting young prospects.
Now that Beal has been traded, maybe they work out a sign-and-trade for the Prodigal Porzingis. The Knicks won’t be the only team sniffing around the remains of this iteration of the Wizards.
The New York Knicks would have to pony up to land Zach LaVine, Karl-Anthony Towns, or Damian Lillard
Other teams are rumored sellers, but those are less sure situations. Let’s start with the Chicago Bulls. The Knicks have long been linked to Zach LaVine, who the Bulls are “quietly” shopping around the league.
LaVine will come with a more hefty sum, though. There are numerous reasons why a LaVine package would cost more than one for Beal, but one of those has to be that the Bulls cannot currently rule themselves out of playoff contention, which the Heat demonstrated is all you really need to have for the kindling for a magical run.
Another name long associated with the Knicks is Karl-Anthony Towns. The Timberwolves are in a more precarious selling situation than the Bulls.
On the one hand, they wildly underperformed this season. On the other, they just made their all-in move last offseason. They could easily rationalize giving this core another shot next year before trading a former No. 1 pick.
Other than Damian Lillard doing his now standard June rendition of “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” those three teams seem to be the complete list of sellers this summer. And only one of those feels like a sure thing.
On top of that, none of the three names mentioned would be home runs for the Knicks. Landing a star this summer feels like a rope bridge in an Indiana Jones movie. The footing is unsure and the cost of failure could be catastrophic.
Leon Rose will need an Indiana Jones level of cunning and charm to navigate trade discussions this offseason. And the Miami Heat are at least partially to blame.
