The getting-to-know you portion of the transition, the new-look Knicks passed that one with flying orange-and-blue colors. They won the first five games in which OG Anunoby was in the lineup. They are now 9-2 since the deal, heading into Tuesday night’s inter-borough clash with the Nets at Barclays Center.
The could-have-been-awkward, will-there-be-buyer’s-remorse phase of this took place on Saturday night, when RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley returned to Madison Square Garden for a loud welcome-home and matching video tributes, a sweet and emotional evening that resulted in a 26-point Knicks win and, for the moment anyway, zero regrets.
And the Nets game resumes a third part of this four-part plan in remaking the Knicks; from now through Feb. 12 the Knicks will play 10 games, and only next Monday’s date at Charlotte (10-31 entering Monday) will not take place within the boundaries of New York City.
There are some nasty tests during this stretch — the Nuggets, Heat, Jazz, Pacers and Lakers all come calling — but the Knicks have a golden opportunity to strengthen their place in the East’s 4-5-6 stay-out-of-the-play-in zone that right now is in play for about six different teams. It all lines up fairly well for the Knicks, assuming a reasonable amount of health.
But that leaves the fourth and final part of this equation.
And that is this:
Between now and 3 p.m. Feb. 8, the Knicks have to look different than they look now. There must be at least one more move up Leon Rose’s sleeve. The Knicks will be at the Garden that night, gearing up for a rematch with Kyrie, Luka and the Mavericks. By tipoff, it is important that the game itself is only a secondary (or even tertiary) story.
Someone else has to be here.
That someone else could be Bruce Brown who, like Anunoby, plays the game in a way that Tom Thibodeau would’ve constructed it if he had a basketball Erector set. He would bring championship-level chops, as a key member of last year’s Nuggets (as well as an ultra-reliable contributor to the 2021 coulda/shoulda/woulda Nets).
That someone could be Malcolm Brogdon, playing well despite languishing amid the losing in Portland, who only a year ago took home the John Havlicek Trophy for the Celtics as the NBA’s top sixth man.
(It could, in theory, be Dejounte Murray, a fine player but not an obvious fit, that’s one to which we suggest to Leon: Just say no.)
What it won’t be, unless the planets completely realign, is the foundational alpha for which this team still yearns, but circumstances have conspired to make Giannis Antetokounmpo unavailable, Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid too essential to teams making legit runs at a title, and Donovan Mitchell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander illogical options.
That is the Knicks’ sobering reality.
But it doesn’t mean they should be passive at the deadline. If anything, what they’ve shown the last three weeks ought to redouble Rose’s desire to make a run at one last significant move. It seems like Mitchell Robinson would be back for the playoffs, so that’s the equivalent of a move that doesn’t cost them a nickel.
But the Knicks are also dealing with a ticking clock. Their most significant asset right now is the expiring contract of Evan Fournier, gathering dust as a museum piece on the bench most nights. The Knicks do hold a team-option for next year on Fournier, so they won’t necessarily lose that asset if they don’t use it before Feb. 8. But that might be a risky game of chicken to play, with salary-cap implications as well as roster flexibility.
The pile of draft picks also begins to dwindle come this summer, notably the Dallas pick they got for Kristaps Porzingis that the Mavs’ late-season collapse pushed ahead to this year.
Most NBA people believe both Brown and Brogdon could be had for the Fournier contract and a few of the Knicks’ sheaf of second-round picks. If that doesn’t exactly have the ring of “final championship piece” to it … well, the Knicks always did view this season’s ceiling as a group of players discovering how to hit above their weight class, not unlike the 2004 Pistons.
Back in training camp Larry Brown — who coached that Detroit team to one title and to within a few minutes of a second — had said: “We kind of had a team that liked each other, and had a mentality they wanted to make their teammates better every game, every practice. We were defensive-minded and hard-working.
“And knowing Thibs and what he believes in, I know these Knicks are the same way.”
They’ve certainly looked that way in the new year. Maybe they aren’t one player away from contention. But that one player sure could make those would-be contenders wonder about having to face a team like this in the playoffs. All you want is a puncher’s chance. This would give them that puncher’s chance.
