The New York Knicks are in a tough spot. They recently raised some future first-round draft capital, but all three picks are covered by the lottery next season. In fact, only one of those picks – the first round from the Washington Wizards – could become the 11th pick by 2025.
This past June, the Knicks held their 11th pick in the NBA Draft and decided it was better to get rid of it. Not the worst idea, but after that option trade, and all the confusion surrounding the Jalen Duren trade, the Knicks don’t seem to be the better team heading into the 2022-23 season than they did in the 2022-23 season. previous prize.
After Julius Randle’s 2020-21 All-NBA, his play has been in decline since the Knicks’ playoff loss to the Atlanta Hawks that season. Derrick Rose played some of his best basketball over the years in that series, resulting in a contract extension for a modest $43 million – by modern NBA standards. Rose injured her ankle in mid-December, required surgery, and never returned to the ring. RJ Barrett is averaging 20 points per game for the first time in his NBA career in 2021-22, but all of his shooting rates are down.
So now the Knicks are a team that has only made it to the knockout stages twice since 2013, with limited draft capital and a passionate fan base that, for the first time in a while, feels like as a winner for over a year. previously as fourth seed in the first round won a playoff. The Knicks used their hat space this season to bring in Jalen Brunson from the Dallas Mavericks. Brunson was the Mavericks’ second-best player last season, and helped keep their season going while Luka Dončić suffered an early injury in the knockout stages, but the 6-foot-tall keeper is now expected will take on the main role in 82 games with the Knicks in the most competitive Eastern Conference in decades.
Rumors have swirled for a while that the Knicks are interested in the tri-state area raised by Donovan Mitchell. The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Tony Jones reported on Tuesday that talks between the Utah Jazz and the New York Knicks have resume related to the transaction for Mitchell. Jazz music a lot rebuild mode after trading Three-Time Defensive Player Rudy Gobert and another starter, Royce O’Neal. Mitchell is the three-time NBA All-Star player that Knicks fans will instantly fall in love with and started naming future kids after him after he had a 40-point game in his first month. mine.
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However, for all of the points that Mitchell scores, 26.4 and 25.9 averages the last two seasons, he’s never shot 50 percent from the field. He’s an undersized guard who is a below-average defender, and the general manager who controls his contract is Danny Ainge.
The former pesky Boston Celtic, Sacramento King, Portland Trail Blazer, and Phoenix Sun as an executive has a habit of wringing teams dry during trades like a rag that needs to quickly clean a table at a restaurant. In the Gobert trade, the new Jazz team president received in return Jarred Vanderbilt, Patrick Beverly, Malik Beasley, three unprotected first-round picks, a pick swap in 2026, a 1-5 protected pick in 2029, Leandro Bolmaro, and the player that the Minnesota Timberwolves selected 22nd in this past NBA Draft.
If the Knicks want Mitchell back in a trade, they need him to first do something to make the situation untenable with the Jazz. With the limited value that the Knicks have to offer, if they push for a Mitchell trade, Ainge will take all of it. That haul he just received from the Timberwolves was for a 7-footer who has scored 20 or more points in a playoff game once in a nine-season career.
Mitchell may not be the most efficient player, but he’s a 25-plus point per game scorer that has shot better than 35 percent from three the past two seasons. Ainge might be looking to trade him to secure the Jazz draft status for the next decade. Even if the Knicks merely give Ainge Barrett, two unprotected firsts, and a 2024 pick swap for Mitchell they’re screwed.
This upcoming season, the Milwaukee Bucks get Khris Middleton back from what wasn’t a serious injury, Lonzo Ball returns for the Chicago Bulls, Colin Sexton comes back for the new and improved Cleveland Cavaliers, and the East also has the Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, and the Atlanta Hawks with Dejounte Murray. Good luck taking on all that with Randle, Rose, Brunson, Mitchell Robinson, Nerlens Noel, Immanuel Quickley, Brunson, and Mitchell.
It’s not worth it. If somehow they can wait Ainge out before the polar ice caps melt, that’s about as long as they need to wait before making a deal with him. If they move any faster Ainge will win, and put a printed picture of the Knicks on his mantle like a 20-pound bass after he guts them and smokes them in his backyard.
There aren’t many options for the Knicks to quickly improve, but getting housed in a Danny Ainge trade might mean there will be no “bing bong ” videos until 2030.
