Here’s the thing: The Knicks are no longer in a position to wait out Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo’s patience. It no longer makes sense to spend assets on older players like Kevin Durant or Paul George, no matter how much gas they have left in the tank.
Joel Embiid? If that was the assumed choice earlier this year, it’s no longer the case after he’s had another injury-plagued year and spent as much energy trying to eliminate the Knicks in the playoffs.
The Knicks no longer operate within assumptions. They’re not thinking about tomorrow, next year or three years from now. Everything they do now, for better or worse, is for now. The Knicks are all in. And on Tuesday, that goal became official with the acquisition of Mikal Bridges from the Nets in exchange for Bojan Bogdanovic and a ton of draft picks. It’s a big ask for a promising player coming off a disappointing season. But it makes perfect sense.
The Knicks are a team that depends on the team’s success. Leon Rose has carefully tweaked his team over the past few years, ever since signing Jalen Brunson and leading the team to championship contention. He was determined to make sure he had every player in his pocket and fit, while taking every opportunity. That meant saying no to Donovan Mitchell. It meant letting Dejounte Murray go to Atlanta. It meant never getting involved in the race to acquire Damian Lillard last year.
They didn’t fit. Josh Hart did. Donte DiVincenzo did. OG Anunoby did. And Bridges does. Some have lamented the exodus of draft picks, but draft picks are obvious unknowns, especially to good teams that pick in their mid-to-early 20s. You can probably name a couple of guys who went on to be All-Stars, but there are about 20 of them playing in Europe four years later.
We know what kind of player Bridges is, and we know how he plays on a good team, as evidenced by how he blossomed in Phoenix and then played when he first arrived in Brooklyn before the Nets imploded.
And of course, we all know how he plays with the other three at Villanova because we watched them have their best years together in college. We saw first Hart and then DiVincenzo bond quickly with Brunson. For most of last year, it felt like Brunson and Hart were quietly wooing him on their podcasts. Bridges is more low-key, instantly saying “take me” in Morse code the two times the Knicks visited Brooklyn this year.
Each time, you trade the known for the unknown.
Does this put the Knicks squarely in Boston’s sights? Not yet. The first thing that must happen is to get OG Anunoby’s signature affixed to the bottom of a big-money extension. This is a top priority for the Knicks, and it’s cause for concern given Anunoby’s injury history, but the cost of bringing him here and the incredible success they’ve enjoyed with him in the lineup leave the Knicks with little choice but to do so.
They need a center. Isaiah Hartenstein is almost certainly going to leave unless he’s willing to take a big discount back home. Are the Knicks ready to commit to re-signing Mitchell Robinson? His name has come up in trade talks, but he’s always open to such things. The damage to his control may be needed to acquire another player at a cheaper price than Hartenstein.
That will become clear in the future.
For now, #Knicksanova is more interesting than ever. The Knicks have already put in a penny (actually, a few pennies) to see if Villanova University’s basketball culture can level up, and now they’re putting in a pound. On a night when baseball’s Subway Series raged for nine innings at Citi Field, the big news came from basketball’s Subway rival, as Bridges crossed the Manhattan Bridge westbound and landed in safety.
We’ve been wondering for years what the Knicks will look like once Leon Rose is ready to cash in on his assets. Now we have a pretty good idea. No need to work on spec anymore. This is the story of today. This is the story of right now.
