Nearly a decade ago, I wrote a column for this magazine arguing that the offseason part of the NBA — free agency, trade rumors, the contract negotiations, the draft lottery, all the feverish tweets — had surpassed actual basketball as the primary driver of interest in the sport. “It used to be that talk and analysis were the pregame, the preparation for game action,” I wrote, if you’ll forgive me quoting myself. “Suddenly, it’s the other way around.” This observation struck me as revolutionary, even brilliant, at the time, and I even spent an hour talking to the great Zach Lowe on his podcast about it. Now it seems so blindingly obvious I’m a little embarrassed to even mention it. Obviously fans care more about offseason intrigue than anything else. Who have you heard more about lately: the defending champion Denver Nuggets and their two-time MVP Nikola Jokic or perpetually disgruntled James Harden? At some point a while back, star NBA newsbreakers Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania didn’t just become more ubiquitous than the players they cover, but even attained one-name celebrity status: Woj and Shams, like Luca, Ja, and Dame.
It has reached the point where the story of two players who aren’t being traded despite demanding their teams deal them — Harden, of the 76ers, and Damian Lillard, of the Trail Blazers — has dominated every morsel of NBA coverage for months, and will continue to do so despite the fact that training camp starts this week. (The biggest question in the NBA right now is literally, Will they show up at their jobs tomorrow, or will they refuse to report to camp until they’re traded?) It’s rumors and hot takes and Stephen A. Smith yelling something into his phone loud enough that it reaches yours. It’s what the NBA is now, and, apparently, what it will remain.
Which is why it’s so strange that the New York Knicks — the team that has been at the center of so much dysfunctional drama for so long they might as well have a “LOLKnicks” alternate jersey at this point — aren’t a part of this drama. In fact, they’re thriving precisely because they’re not a part of it.
Take it from a diehard fan: The Knicks have historically always been in the middle of this kind of bullshit. In the past, if there was a past-his-prime, angry veteran demanding more money and a brighter spotlight, the Knicks would step up and roll the dice. Madison Square Garden is where overpaid, bloated veterans went to die, all because Isiah Thomas (or someone like him, but usually him) decided to pay them $100 million to do so. (This picture will haunt my dreams the rest of my life.) So it has not been a surprise to see the Knicks pop up as possible suitors for both Harden and Lillard, two excellent players (one of whom is actually likable!), both on the wrong side of 33. The Knicks always wanted guys like that, because the Knicks always wanted stars. Which is why the Knicks, especially under Jim Dolan, always ended up terrible.
But — and wow is this Knicks fan nervous about saying this out loud; it feels a little like reciting “Candyman” three times in a mirror — these are not the same old Knicks. The team has ample trade assets to give up for either player, and they don’t have anyone on the roster who’s a bigger brand name than either of them. And yet they haven’t so much as sniffed in the 76ers’ or Trail Blazers’ direction. The Knicks have been smart and prudent and cautious. As the rest of the NBA goes absolutely star-crazy, the Knicks have built slowly, carefully, and judiciously. They have ignored the offseason circus that the NBA thrives on. It’s like watching a cow learn to juggle. And, as the Knicks open up their own training camp this week (part of which will be held in South Carolina, harking back to the days of Pat Riley), it must be said: Their strategy is working magnificently, and it will probably keep paying off beyond this season and next. I’m not sure there’s a team in the Eastern Conference that has set themselves up better for the future. I cannot believe I am saying this.
The Knicks, who won 47 games last year and reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals for only the second time this century, have built a respectable team in an unusual and unfashionable way, one that goes against the grain of most great NBA teams. New York has held on to all of its draft picks — and even traded for new ones when the opportunity arises — while avoiding the hugely expensive flashy big-ticket free agent options. This has allowed them to build a team whose defining feature is depth: They have, simply, more really good players than almost any other team in the NBA.
The argument against doing things this way is a reasonable one. It contends that you don’t need a lot of really good players; you just need a few great ones. (The ’90s Chicago Bulls teams, for example, weren’t deep. But it didn’t matter, because they had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman.) But the Knicks, because they haven’t been desperately searching for whatever would-be star they can get their hands on, haven’t crippled their roster and eliminated their depth by trading for a Harden or a Lillard. This has, not coincidentally, allowed them to create their own. Before last year, the team signed Jalen Brunson to a free-agent contract, but not a massive one, with the belief that he was the exact right fit for their roster and culture. (That Knicks president Leon Rose is Brunson’s actual godfather didn’t hurt either.) They were correct — and Brunson turned out to be an actual star on top of that. He has blossomed into a top-20 player in the NBA and is the heart and soul of these Knicks, to the point that the team has actually brought in two of his college teammates (Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo) to join him. Brunson’s presence has elevated the Knicks’ floor and their ceiling. They might not yet quite be a title contender, but that can happen fast too — no one considered the Heat to be in the title mix throughout last season, and then we all looked up and they were in the finals.
Rather than chasing every big name, the Knicks got their man without sacrificing talented young players like Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes, or Mitchell Robinson, or any of their future draft picks. That matters because it allows the Knicks to be choosy when they eventually do decide to go after a star — a real star, unlike the aging Harden and Lillard. They still have all their trade capital, which just may be coming in handy soon. The Knicks have made the bet that if they keep their powder dry — if they avoid the old Knicks move of jumping feet first at the first opportunity — they can swim in the big-fish waters when the big fish become available. And as it turns out, a couple might be soon.
Both the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and the 76ers’ Joel Embiid — two of the five greatest players in the world, who together have won three of the last five MVPs, who are both still under the age of 30 — have spent their offseasons contributing to the Woj and Shams content mill by hinting that if their own teams don’t win a title this year, they would be interested in exploring a trade to a team that might. The Knicks are on both of their lists. The team has pulled off that rarest of magic tricks: They’ve gotten good in the short term and kept all their options open for the future. It’s everything you could want from your team. And again, it’s flabbergasting.
Look, this could all implode for the reason the team has been so dismal most of this century: team owner Jim Dolan. He’s been eerily, unnervingly quiet as Rose and the Knicks have methodically reconstructed this entire franchise, but as any Knicks fan can tell you, the specter of Dolan barging in and crushing everything Rose has built is a real one. Then again, he hasn’t so far. And he can see the full houses of delirious fans at MSG just like the rest of us can. The Knicks come into training camp as a refreshing counterbalance to everything Dolan has been in the past, and everything the NBA has turned into now. For once, I’m so happy that there are such intelligent people in charge of my team. This is as good as it has been in a long, long time.
And not to jinx anything, but I’ve already ordered one of these:
