In the aftermath of ESPN’s Shams Charania reporting that Giannis Antetokounmpo had interest in joining the New York Knicks over the summer, it’s become popular practice to relitigate the team’s last year-and-change of transactions. The main takeaway: New York basically chose trading for Mikal Bridges over Giannis—even though it absolutely, positively did not.
Criticizing the Knicks’ process is easy in hindsight. They surrendered control of six first-round picks (five outright, and one swap) for someone who’s a fringe top-50 player. Those assets would have come in handy during negotiations for Giannis this past summer with the Milwaukee Bucks.
All of that rings true if the Knicks knew Giannis would get itchy between June 2024 and August 2025, and that he would, as Charania notes, have eyes for only them. There is no way New York could have known that.
The Knicks front office deserves more credit
Even if, as Charania also relays, the Knicks had an inkling that Giannis was intrigued by playing for them, they couldn’t possibly put a concrete timeline on when he’d push to get dealt. His appetite for leaving Milwaukee has fluctuated back and forth, almost annually, for years. The Bucks have always done enough to sell him on staying. It would be unreasonable to expect New York to know the exact offseason over which Giannis’ loyalty might break.
In the event the Knicks knew this opportunity could arise this past summer, do we really think they would have gone ahead, and mortgaged the farm for Bridges? The Leon Rose-led front office is nothing if not known for doing its homework.
As The Athletic’s Fred Katz reported, the front office even waited on extending Bridges for as long as they thought was reasonable because of Giannis. Rose and Co. clearly aren’t acting on impulse, or amid ignorance. There is no way they knew this was coming, and pivoted anyway.
Even the negotiations this past summer with the Bucks point toward forethought. Charania says Milwaukee never believed New York put its best foot forward in talks. This reeks of the Knicks doubting Giannis wanted out. That’s a smart, thinking-two-steps-ahead approach by them. They knew these talks would inevitably leak, and tying themselves to an aggressive offer built around specific names now still on the roster could undermine their chemistry.
New York’s mistake is being overblown
By no means does this validate the Bridges trade in a vacuum. The Knicks overpaid, full stop. But it’s important to contextualize the swing-and-miss.
New York was not on a gradual timeline. It was facing pressure to win immediately after waiting out the star-trade market for years. Delaying a big move any longer would have received just as much criticism as failing to hold out hope for Giannis is getting now.
This is without considering the Jalen Brunson of it all. Does he sign the mother of all team-friendly extensions if they didn’t trade for one of his Villanova friends? Maybe. But also, maybe not.
If the Knicks made a mistake in assembling this core, it’s that they identified the wrong player as their finishing piece—not that they couldn’t read Giannis’ mind.