Every move in the NBA is hardly made in a vacuum. If the New York Knicks give money to one player, they can’t give it to another. Trading for one star means missing out on the next one. Drafting a promising young prospect means missing out on the next one.
NBA teams have to hope they are making the right calls, spending on the right players, and ultimately building a roster that can compete for a title. When the Knicks entered the offseason with very limited team-building resources available, the decision tree was that much more narrow.
The New York Knicks didn’t have a lot to do this summer
Without any draft picks, the Knicks weren’t making the same decision as, say the Charlotte Hornets, choosing between Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson with the number two pick. There was, and is, a lot of pressure on Charlotte to get that pick right. The Knicks didn’t have the same pressure, as their primary bullet this summer was the non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
At the same time, this is a team that made the second round of the playoffs and has aspirations to get even further. They will likely need to add another star to get there, but in the meantime, they must build the best possible team to be ready to go once such a deal materializes. The pressure, therefore, comes from without.
Let’s see how the Knicks did this summer with the resources they had. What was the best move that they made, and what move was available to them that they failed to make? We aren’t going to critique them for not drafting Victor Wembanyama or signing Jerami Grant, but what could they have done to make this team better that was left undone?