If you haven’t been paying attention, the New York Knicks are no longer terrible. They may even be absolutely competent. As of Saturday, January 30, they are in the playoffs – well, at least in the play-in round as number 8 in the East, albeit with a sub-0.500 record (9-11).
With the footprints of Tom Thibodeau in all his physical identity suddenly bold, the Knicks have been hovering over the position of one of the top five defenders. Part of that is the opponent’s (bad) luck shot. More than 76 percent of the Knicks’ attempts to throw are in the ring or behind the 3-point line, and their opponents are shooting just 30.8 percent – the worst mark in the league – at 3 open points (closest defender more than six feet away), which is a figure that will almost certainly not remain as extremely favorable to New York.
Still, the Knicks are defensively long and athletic with a legitimate rim guard on Mitchell Robinson. Where they fight is on the other side. Coming in on Saturday, the Knicks have the third worst attack with the third worst percentage of effective league goals in the league, according to Cleaning the Glass. Which begs the question: is it time to make a move to get some firepower?
This takes us to Zach LaVine. According to Ian Begley of SNY, the Knicks are “keeping an eye on the LaVine situation in Chicago”, which means they are monitoring their potential trade availability.
This does not make the Knicks different from many other teams, of course. LaVine is the league’s top scorer, tied for 10th in the league with 27 points a night on Saturday, and is a fast-growing facilitator. If it becomes available, the Bulls will have many options depending on the asking price.
Up to that point, the Knicks, who have prioritized low-cost, short-term deals for the past two seasons, don’t have much in terms of equal pay for LaVine’s $ 19.5 million contract this season, unless they part ways with Julius Randle, who can be seen as a long-term play in New York, as he is having a Most Improved Player season.
RJ Barrett is almost certainly out of the question unless a true franchise-changing superstar is on the other side of the business. You would think that the Knicks would avoid putting Robinson in a deal. The Knicks have significant equity in the draft, five players in the first round in the next three years, and may include Immanuel Quickley and Kevin Knox as the young candidates. Add, say, Frank Ntilikina and Elfrid Payton as expired contracts, and a reasonable deal will be available.
Whether Chicago could improve is another question. That would probably depend on how many draft choices New York would be willing to include. This raises another, even more important question: would a move for a LaVine player make sense from the point of view of the Knicks timeline?
That depends on whether they’re still waiting for home run hires that can catapult them into containment (they have to wake up from that chimera at some point, don’t they?), Or whether Leon Rose is committed to more incremental reconstruction in the interest of establishing an appearance of credibility with players across the league.
If the latter is the way – and it should be – then LaVine, or a similar player, could make sense. He placed the Knicks even on the old post-season pitch and potentially served as a starting point for even better players, who would now be willing to go to New York to play with another player, at least a marginal star. As of now, the Knicks have more than $ 50 million in cap space this summer just for letting their businesses expire.
In fact, there is something interesting going on with the Knicks. We will not jump too far ahead. They are still the Knicks. But this is a team that competes every night, plays defense and has the construction of a good work front to advance. Barrett can still transform into a star, although if your jumper doesn’t develop into a consistent weapon, he will likely fall as a third option on a good team. Fortunately, Randle’s improvements continue. Austin Rivers is playing very well.
So yes, there are things to be moderately excited about. Would pursuing a player like LaVine be an aggressive double in a small sample of encouraging developments? It depends on how you look at the Knicks’ timeline.
Everyone has the same long-term goal: to compete for a championship. But short-term goals differ between organizations. Some simply want to develop their young players, lose games and continue to prepare for recruitment. Some want to become competitive as quickly as possible. The Knicks seem to be in the last field, with Thibodeau in charge. From that perspective, the LaVine would make sense in New York should be available and the Knicks would at least be able to assemble the most competitive offer, which is far from certain.