Since the NBA draft will be held this week, I was thinking about the potential trades for my NY Knicks basketball team last night. I followed rumors such as the team seeking a superstar like Paul George (who wants a 4 year extension) or a replacement for Isaiah Hartenstein (who is likely to leave in free agency) and even make a dream trade for Lebron James (nope!). Meanwhile, Nets have been practically shouting they’re keeping Mikal Bridges.
So when I saw the breaking news last night that the Knicks got him for a bunch of unprotected first round picks plus Bojan Bogdanović (who will likely get rerouted to another team), it’s like Xmas in June for me. Critics argue Leon Rose traded the farm and mortgaged the team’s future for a secondary star, and they are correct.
BUT the window of opportunity to contend for a championship is really, really, really short in the NBA. The Knicks were a few able bodies short of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals this year; if they faced the Celtics, the series would have been close.
This year’s championship showed that you could build a contender around wings, and the Knicks could do the same with a OG-Mikal tandem. And if that means blowing up the budget and paying OG a 5 year/$200m contract, do it. Let the Knicks contend for a championship for the next two years, and then start a rebuild to go under the cap in 2026. The worst thing GM Rose could do is sit between a tanking team and a contender.
Musings of an Amused Writer 