The New York Knicks need to make a trade. More than one of them, in fact. That is no longer up for debate. Also inarguable: They can’t count on a trade, or a series of moves, fixing what is now a fundamentally broken team.
Any overarching fix, insofar as it exists, has to come from within.
This does not excuse the Knicks from working the phones, and sussing out improvements. Holstering assets for a bigger move over the offseason sounds logical in theory. But sitting tight only flies if they can be rabble-rousers as currently constructed. They’re not.
Forget all the nitty-gritty data on how much the Knicks have struggled since the NBA Cup. They are more than halfway through the season, and presently closer to the play-in tournament than second place in an Eastern Conference they were favored to win.
This genre of failure requires action. At the same time, no single trade is solving the myriad things wrong with this team. And even if it could, the Knicks are not well positioned to pull it off.
The Knicks are not making a blockbuster trade
New York heads into the trade deadline with just $150,000 separating it from the second apron, which they cannot cross. It isn’t allowed, as a result, to take back more money than they receive.
That is far from damning. The dearth of assets at the Knicks’ disposal is a different story. They have no first-round picks to trade. Their most valuable draft selection is either this year’s second-round choice from the Washington Wizards, or one of their own first-round swaps.
Complicated still, the Knicks do not have the salary-matching to swing blockbuster moves without knifing into the core. Their most attractive player is probably Deuce McBride, or Mitchell Robinson’s expiring contract. Neither earns enough to bring back a real difference-maker, even when combined together, and good luck replacing what they bring to the rotation and upgrading the roster at the same time.
Dreams of acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo or Jaren Jackson Jr. are just that—pure, utter fantasy. The rest of the league has watched this team. You think the Milwaukee Bucks or Memphis Grizzlies will want this version of Karl-Anthony Towns in exchange for their respective franchise cornerstones?
It’s the same story with OG Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges. And even if they are worth a king’s ransom, the Knicks once again run into the same problem: They will be long shots to meaningfully improve the team if they also have to replace one or both of them should they be part of any deal.
New York must be prepared to fix itself
Team president Leon Rose still needs to do something, anything, to deepen the rotation, address the squad’s laundry list of failings, and frankly, just instill change into a bleak situation desperate for it.
In the end, though, the Knicks will by and large have to fix themselves. They don’t have the means to view other teams’ players as the answer. The answer must come from within.
That sounds hopeless now, in the thick of this unwatchable stretch of basketball and body language. But it wasn’t too long ago this team, flaws and all, looked like it was no worse than the second-best squad in the East.
The Knicks desperately need to get back to that, and then hope there’s room for internal improvement. Whether this escape from lifelessness is predicated on KAT and Mike Brown fixing their nonexistent relationship, shaking up the starting lineup, trial-by-firing the youth, or just simply waiting for the vets to get their crap together is debatable. It will all be a matter of course.
For their part, the Knicks better hope it’s a navigable one—because as much as they need a trade, it ultimately won’t be what spares this season from becoming an abject failure.