Please Don't Do Anything Stupid (NY Knicks Edition)

I know I've been talking a lot of shit about the Knicks lately.  But in their defense, it should be noted that superteams rarely win championships in their first season together.

Moreover, it's arguable whether or not this iteration of the Knicks is actually a superteam.  The way I define a superteam is as:

• a squad whose core is made up of three perennial all-star level players, or
• a squad with two perennial all-stars buttressed by exceptional role players.

I've been saying for awhile that Mikal Bridges is one of the most-underrated players in the NBA.  That's something I picked up on when the Suns devalued him for KD, and dude was like a borderline all-star during his brief stint with the Nets.  But I don't know if Bridges + KAT + Brunson, would meet that first definition of a superteam.

As for that second, if we were the take it that the Knicks true core is rather made up of KAT + Brunson, yes, they're surrounded by some quality players, but the bench isn't deep enough to qualify as a superteam.  With that second definiton, I'm thinking more along the lines of those types of rosters that the Lakers surrounded Shaq + Kobe with back in the day, you know, during their last two championships.  During their first championship, history tends to forget that had Glen Rice by their side and therefore qualified as a straight-up superteam.

The funny thing is, this past season, the only squad that had a straight-up superteam was the Suns.  Bradley Beal has sorta fallen off of late, you know, if you're looking for a scapegoat.  I've been saying since his days in Washington that he was more or less overrated, and now, that's sorta been proven, though to my understanding injury is a major factor.  But anyway, as you know, Phoenix, with that stacked core, didn't even make the Play-Ins.  There's a lesson to be learnt there somewhere.

After the Suns, if I were forced to name another superteam, second on the list would the Knicks.  Talent-wise, NYK has the best starting five in the league.  They fared much better than Pheonix but went on to disappoint nonetheless.

But the point is, now I sorta agree with Jalen Brunson.  For what it's worth, NYK did make progress this season.  They were the only team to have two players start in the All-Star Game.  And they made it all the way to ECF, even if they had some notable 'luck' along the way.

The bottom line is, their current roster deserves at least one more chance.  What the Knicks should be focused on is edifying their bench and, if any player must go, trading Mitchell Robinson for another defensive big who's healthier.  But, once agian this is the Knicks we're talking about, not an organization that's necessarily known for its intelligence when it comes to roster construction.  So instead, we're met with rumors of them rather focusing on trading for Giannis, KD or, oh my goodness, Jason Kidd.  As for the latter, I don't know exactly how that deal would look, but I hope they aren't actually stupid enough to give up a valued rotation player for a coach who, as if the one that just departed, never won a championship.

Now let me be honest and say I can totally picture a frontline composed of KAT + Giannis.  Giaanis is exactly the type of frontcourt runningmate someone like Karl needs.  We already tried Rudy Gobert, but the lack of speed between the both of them wasn't ideal.  Then there's Mitchell Robinson - tall, lanky, quick and defense-first, someone who, in theory, should fit better next to KAT, who himself is more or less like a lumbering big.  But damn, those injuries.  It's like even when Robinson is healthy, he's isn't.

The problem though with trading for Giannis is, who are they going to give up?  The Knicks already gutted their roster last offseason, and whereas they've added guys like Cameron Payne, Landry Shamet and PJ Tucker(?), I think you know what I mean.

Then on the other side of the equation is, who exactly would the Bucks take back in return?  If Giannis goes, I think it's safe to say that would be start of a rebuild rather than Milwaukee still trying to win with the oft-injured Dame as their best player.  That experiment did not work out at all... because of injuries.  It's always sad to see a team fail just because its stars' bodies are banged up, you know, like back in the days when Grant Hill teamed up with Tracy McGrady.  It's like we'll never actually know how good they could have been.

That said, it's hard to imagine the Bucks, say, taking back Brigdes and Anunoby for Giannis.  A  two-for-one deal like would be more or less fair.  But again, there wouldn't be much sense sending Mikal and OG to a team that's rebuilding.  And for the Knicks, that would literally be one step forward, two steps backwards, sorta like they did in trading Randall + DiVincenzo for KAT, though that trade, transaction-wise, was more understandable.

And speaking of not making sense, I don't even know why the Knicks would consider going after KD.  It may sound like I do a lot of Durant bashing, but let me clarify that if I could meet any player in the NBA, it'd probably be KD.  He's someone I actually admire, like personality-wise.  He's also an offensive powerhouse, albeit one not known for defense at all these days.  Unfortunately for Kevin, his mind is stuck in a past where you could go out and grab two other all-stars and boom, a championship.  And even after witnessing the failure of the 2025 Suns, the Knicks are exactly the type of franchise who would comply with some dumb shit like that, you know, assembling a core of three superstars who none of them can play defense.  But I guess the logic would be that the best defense is a good offense, supporting players be damned.

CONCLUSION

The Knicks played well enough this season and were entertaining enough that fans deserve a runback.  Or if they must make additions and subtractions, let it be on some guru shit, like the Thunder did last offseason.

There comes a point where someone needs to sit James Dolan and them down and be like 'look, we need to choose a path and stick to it'.  Even the Trailblazers are on that shit these days.  Yeah, it's cool having more money than you can spend and the ability to shuffle superstars at will.  But there comes a point, even last offseason with NYK, where constantly making big transactions proves counterproductive.  Again, note the Suns.

The Knicks did take a stand bringing in Jalen Brunson a couple of seasons ago, and they followed up by acquiring the services of KAT last year.  Now, since they've made those decision, they need to focus more on acquiring players that will mitigate their weaknesses rather than engaging in perpetual starchasing.

In theory, being backed by Bridges, Anunoby and Hart, all of whom appear to be above-average defensively, should work.  If anything, NYK is over-talented.  But trading dudes to get another superstar does not, all things considered, sound like a viable short-term solution.

2024-25 NBA Offseason Grades (Atlantic Division)

As I always say when it comes to these ranking/prediction posts - basketball guru I may be - take from them what you will.  There are too many variables - health, roster retention, roster compatibility, rigging, etc. - for someone like me to know who's going to end up where by the end of the day.  Also, there's so many dudes coming in and out of the NBA that after following the league for some decades, your brain sorta starts to blur.

So the assertions I make are based on how things appear on the surface, albeit using a critical eye, taking into consideration all information at hand and not just going along with what the public or media may say.  Also, I don't play favorites.  If there's a particular team I want to win, then I'll just say so.  But I'm not going to predict they're going to win just because I want them to.

That said, here are my preseason grades, based on notable transactions that may or may not have been made thus far.  And I'm going to do this division by division so that hopefully, I can eventually get to all 30 teams:

BOSTON CELTICS: B

The Celtics didn't make any additions and by the looks of things didn't particularly need to.  But the one thing that concerns me, in terms of why I didn't give them a higher grade, is because they're once again banking on the health of Kristaps Porzingis.  Well, kinda sorta.

The same thing can be said when they acquired him last season.  But by the end of the day, all things considered, it was like they didn't even need him.

I'm not dissing Kristaps.  His exceptional skillset and effortless adaptation to Boston's style of play helped the team dominate the regular season and secure home court advantage, which I guess did matter.  But there no reason to believe that he'll be able to ever like make a full playoff run.

The good news is that, it doesn't appear any team in the East  upgraded to the point of being able to dethrone the Celtics, except maybe Philly or maybe the Knicks, if they're lucky enough to be healthier come playoff time.  And that's kinda my thing.  Players like Tatum, Brown, Holiday and even White are incredibly sturdy.  But it ain't like the Celtics got any younger.  So they must really feel confident in this unit to run it back.  And well, that disposition did payoff last season.  But still, it ain't like they should be applauded for having achieved anything this offseason, unless you consider paying Tatum a gazillion dollars as an accomplishment.

BROOKLYN NETS: F

The Brooklyn Nets are like the team time has forgot.  They have like the most famous arena in the NBA, albeit coupled with what is perhaps the least-exciting roster this coming season.

I didn't give them an F because they had a bad offseason per se.  For instance, it's cool that the underappreciated Nic Claxton finally scored a payday.  Also, I'm glad that Mikal Bridges was able to get himself out of there.  But that F is more along the lines of like who even really gives a F*ck about the Nets anymore?

Again, this is an organization with a world-famous arena, representing what's arguably the most famous city (or borough) in hip-hop.  They're also supposed to have this like multi-billionaire majority owner, and that's the best they can do?  And the icing on the cake is still having Ben f*ckin' Simmons on the roster.  Oh well.  You never really know until the whistle actually blows.

NEW YORK KNICKS: B+

The reason I give the Knicks a B+ isn't because they signed Mikal Bridges, but rather because they weren't stupid enough to throw a bunch of money at Isaiah Hartenstein, who's overrated.  I'm not trying to diss dude, as I think OKC is in a position to capitalize on his attributes a lot more than NYK.  Personally, I believe that the departure of Bogdanovic was a bigger loss, because the Knicks were absolutely destroying opponents from deep.

Even with Bridges, they're basically in the same position they were last season, keeping their fingers crossed that dudes remain healthy which, all things considered, may not be particularly likely.  At least Mikal, as far as I know, doesn't have any type of troubling injury history.

But the two players you have to particularly keep your eyes on are Anunoby and especially Randle.  Like you already know that Mitchell Robinson is going to unavailable at one key time or another.  So now with Hartenstein gone, it becomes more imperative that Julius can make the playoffs.  But that said, whatever happened to Jericho Sims?

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: C

I'm not impressed by the acquisition of Paul George for two reasons.  One is that, there really isn't any reason to believe that both he and Embiid will be healthy enough to play throughout an entire playoff run.  And second, throughout the last decade the Sixers have been able to perennially maintain more impressive rosters than any other team in the NBA.  There were a couple of seasons in the recent past where I would even argue that they had the best roster, in terms of depth + talent.  That was true pre-Jimmy Butler, post-Jimmy Butler and even post-Simmons.

But none of those iterations ever resulted in championship success, and there's really isn't much reason to believe it will now.  In fact their current roster may even be too talented, esp on the wings.

But the biggest issue currently facing this squad is its unwillingness to move on from Embiid, you know, while dude is still tradeable type sh*t.  He may arguable be the best C in the league when healthy, but a lot of times he isn't.  By this point, I think it's safe to say that he'll never be 100% again, at least not over a lengthy timespan, like an entire playoff series.  Also even when healthy enough to play and contribute (for three quarters), he sometimes acts like a brat.

I predict that by the middle of this season, other people may finally start to that it's time for Philly to move on from Joel and enter the Maxey era, so to speak.  They really need to focus on making sure that Drummond gets ample playing time and familiarity with his new teammates, like just in case.  Forcing Joel to run himself into the ground, even if he is a max player, is not the ideal strategy.     

TORONTO RAPTORS: C

I recently came across an article, I believe on Yahoo!, which criticized the Raptors for behaving like they don't know what TF they're doing.  I more or less agree, but at least their roster is such that if they make one key addition (whoever that may be), the squad could be like really formidable.

My main criticism I guess is it appearing that Toronto is building around Scottie Barnes.  Barnes is an exceptional player though one who has always been, at least imo, overrated.  But now he's been handed the keys to the car, so we'll see if he really is an NBA superstar.  That said, he doesn't strike me as being better than Siakim or even really Anunoby for that matter.

And I guess that's why Toronto deserves the type of criticism as highlighted above.  They seem to have this tendency to give up more than they gain or even when pulling off sound trades (like Anunoby for Quickley and Barrett) still appearing as if they haven't made any progress.

CONCLUSION

It looks like the Celtics will once again prevail, as they only have one injury-prone star as opposed to their main competitors (the Knicks and Philly) having at least two.