The New York Knicks thought that they were being savvy. They had two first-round picks in the 2021 NBA Draft and felt that gave them the flexibility to flip one for a future pick down the road. In every way, however, the Knicks bungled that trade, and it's a lose-lose experience that is brought up again and again. This week that happened again as Kai Jones signed with a new team.
Former Texas center Kai Jones was in the news this week as he signed with a new team. Unfortunately for Jones, it was not with an NBA team, as his career stateside appears to be on pause, if not over entirely. Jones signed with Anadolu Efes, a team in the Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL).
Andalou is a European power, loaded with former NBA players. Former Knicks guard Shane Larkin has become a Turkish superstar, while Roddy Beaubois, PJ Dozier and Cole Swider fill out the bench and European stars Roland Smits and Isaiah Cordinier play major roles. It's a stacked team, and Jones is in line to play a prominent role, and potentially even start at center.
Yet any mention of Jones highlights the trajectory that his career has taken since being drafted just four seasons ago. The Bahamian big man has played only 107 games in those four years, flaming out so incredibly in Charlotte that the Hornets waived him after just two seasons.
If you pull up Jones' page on any basketball website, you will notice a fun fact about him: he was drafted by the New York Knicks. Every time that Jones shows up in the news, it's a reminder of one of the worst all-around moves of the last decade for the Knicks.
It was a colossal lose-lose trade for the Knicks
The Knicks entered the 2021 NBA Draft with picks No. 19 and 21 to add to a good roster. When the time came for New York to make their selection at 19, however, the Knicks decided to trade the pick instead. They selected Texas center Kai Jones on behalf of the Charlotte Hornets, sending Jones down south for a future first-round pick.
Every piece of that deal was a disaster. The Hornets certainly swung and missed, trading into the Top-20 and coming away with a player who couldn't even last more than two seasons in the NBA. He was quite possibly the worst offensive center in the league over those two seasons, and he couldn't earn more than paltry minutes on a Hornets team that wasn't any good. Huge disaster for the Hornets.
Yet the Knicks come off looking every bit as bad. First, they traded out of pick No. 19 when Duke's Jalen Johnson was on the board and would go just one pick later. Given how epically the Knicks failed to draft a forward in essentially every year's draft for decades, they had the opportunity to land a true difference-maker and instead pushed the ejection button.
What is worse, they didn't do so for anything of value. They traded the No. 19 pick for a future Charlotte Hornets first that at best would be the 15th pick because of stringent protections, and most likely was destined to become merely two second-round picks.
The Knicks thus had this highly-protected first-round pick with limited upside, so their options for using that pick to upgrade the roster were limited. Yet they still managed to fail yet again, using that pick to bring in reclamation project Cam Reddish. That did not work out on any level, as Reddish played 35 games of uninspired basketball in New York before he was used as merely matching salary in the deal for Josh Hart.
The Knicks could have added a two-way combo forward in Jalen Johnson to their roster. Instead, they drafted an absolute draft bust in Kai Jones, flipped him for a weak protected first-round pick, then sold that pick for another bust in Cam Reddish. It is little wonder they don't want to hear the name of Kai Jones brought up.
Jones has a new team and a chance to compete for a championship this season. The Knicks have rebounded and are pursuing a title of their own. A colossally unique lose-lose trade is in the rearview mirror, and everyone involved is facing forward.
Looking back will only bring pain.