Trade Talk: Mikal Bridges (to Knicks) vs. 5 First-Round Draft Picks (to Nets)

I agree with those pundits who argue that to Knicks going all-in to win a championship is the right thing to do.  All things considered, if you have roster of contenders on your hand, time is not to be taken for granted anymore.  There isn't anymore of that taking five to six years to build a core into champions, unless maybe they're young, like the Thunder (who I will get to later).  The potential for injury and player salaries no longer allow such luxuries, and injuries in the NBA are real, pretty much across the board.  For instance, the Celtics just managed to win a championship even though their starting C was hurt throughout most of the playoffs and like during half of the Finals.

So I don't particularly agree with the Knicks acquiring Bridges to fill the void, because once again, their roster is health dependent.  Yes, if Mikal was with NYK last offseason and actually playable, they prolly would have beaten the Pacers, even with Anunoby, Robinson, Bogdanovic, Randle, etc. on the injury list.  But that's in part illustrative of just how suspect Indiana is.

It appears that the Pacers are pretty much going to be bringing back their entire roster, i.e. the one that just made the conference finals.  But I have yet to come across a pundit mentioning them as potential contenders in 2024-25.

That said, the way the Knicks roster currently looks, they'll really be banking on Julius Randle staying well or at least healthy enough to make it through a postseason.  I would say Randle and Mitchell Robinson, but we can already take for granted that the latter will have injury issues.  In other words, NYK has assembled this roster full of quality guards and wings which, by default, now makes their bigs more valuable.  That is to say that if a G or F goes down, there's others to replace him.  But such is not so much the case with their Cs.

And I know what you may be saying - 'hey, the Celtics just won a championship with guards and forwards and their premiere big injured'.  That's something that we will touch on later.

I guess that's part of the reason why people were considering Isaiah Hartenstein to be such an important cog in NYK's wheel, but I didn't.  He had one sorta good postseason and was instantly overrated.  In fact, based on what I observed, he became worn down and even proved to be a liability as the series against the Pacers wore on.  Like it isn't that extraordinary for the tallest dude on the court to average 9 points and 8 rebounds.  That's another thing about last season's Eastern Conference Finals, that even if only Mitchell Robinson were around to backup Hartenstein, that could've made a major difference for the Knicks.

That said, I think Isaiah, whether playing behind Chet Holmgren or starting alongside him, is an excellent addition for the Thunder.  There, the expectations on him won't be unrealistic.  I personally envisioned someone like Clint Capela going to Oklahoma City instead.  But it appears that the Hawks, whatever the hell they're doing at the moment, plan to keep him instead.

CONCLUSION

My biggest complaint against the acquisition of Bridges though is that, instead of being more creative, the Knicks are trying to beat the Celtics at their own game.  It's going to be difficult, it not impossible for another squad to assemble a better group of all-around guards and wings than Boston currently has.  The way NYK is strategizing reminds me of all those teams who, in vain, tried to fashion themselves after the Dubs.  But again, if Randle stays healthy (and Porzingis doesn't), the Knicks may well make it out of the East.  But then again, perhaps the same thing could have been said about last season.  Oh well.

As for the Nets, they're sorta like the team that time forgot.  Remember that, around the time they first moved to Brooklyn, they went into win-now mode and gave up their future (i.e. draft picks) for veteran players, kinda like the Knicks just did for Mikal.  So now, there isn't even like a single star on the Nets' roster, unless you're still looking to Ben Simmons to represent.  Also, it's hard to imagine that any veteran who actually wants to win would go to Brooklyn, even if they do have like the best arena.

I guess the person I feel sorry for the most in all of this is Nic Claxton.  Like I would really like to see him on a quality team with committed stars, even if it's one like the Magic who, oddly enough, prioritized a wing player in free agency over acquiring a more-needed post-playing big.