Welcome to the second installment of Building A Blueprint, this time with the New York Knicks. The Knicks have a history of organizational failure and poor performance, but the new regime seems to have people excited for the Knicks’ future. Here’s my blueprint for the Knicks to lift New York City basketball to new heights.
2018-19 Season
The Knicks have started off the 2018-19 season right where they want to be: near the bottom of the East. A top lottery pick should be the main motivating factor for New York. Thinking along these lines, a pragmatic GM would love to get value out of veterans that don’t fit the rebuilding scheme.
Potential Trades
Enes Kanter is good enough to get value from a trade but not good enough to warrant keeping. His post-scoring and rebounding skills would serve a contending team very well, perhaps as part of their second unit. As to what can be acquired in exchange for Kanter, I wouldn’t expect much. A late first-round pick is the best-case scenario. If they can’t find a suitable deal for Kanter, keeping him around isn’t a death knell. At 26, he’ll contribute for years to come.
Along with Kanter, Courtney Lee needs to go in order for New York to free up cap space. Teams with a dearth of three-point shooting might bite on Lee, who shoots 39% from deep. Still, he has a heavy contract and wouldn’t net too much of a return.
Tim Hardaway Jr. should stay with the Knicks for the time being. His 22 PPG has been an incredibly pleasant surprise for the young squad. The rest of the roster is relatively green and cheap, contract-wise. It should be a learning season for all of the young players, and Hardaway can lead while Porzingis gets back.
One extremely interesting scenario for New York would be giving up Kanter, perhaps Trey Burke, and second-round or a heavily protected first-round pick for Markelle Fultz. It’s unlikely that Philadelphia would bite, but if they did, New York would get a former first overall pick for relatively cheap. Such a trade could go two ways. If it worked out, it could catapult the Knicks towards. If Fultz ends up a bust, the Knicks wouldn’t have lost very much in terms of assets. The only issue with Fultz is that his contract over the next few years becomes expensive, which would hurt New York’s coveted cap space. Because this trade is unlikely to happen, I won’t continue the rest of the article on the premise that it does.
2019-20
The summer prior to 2019-20 will be a big one. If the Knicks trade away Lee, they’ll have $64 million in cap space. A lot of that money will go towards retaining Kristaps Porzingis. The Knicks still should be able to carve out maximum cap space by releasing Lance Thomas, if necessary. In order, the free agents New York should target are Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving (if the Celtics crash and burn), Kemba Walker, and Demarcus Cousins. Any of these four players would catapult the Knicks into the next tier of teams automatically.
With a stacked free agent class, the capped-out Knicks would be able to land productive players using their minimum and mid-level exceptions. A potential lineup with Durant could look like:
Frank Nkitilina, Tim Hardaway Jr, Kevin Durant, Kristaps Porzingis, and Mitchell Robinson.
Kevin Knox would serve as a sixth man and Allonzo Trier hopefully morphs into a Lou Williams-type. Perhaps the Knicks get Walker and run him alongside Hardaway Jr, Knox, Porzingis, and Robinson. That starting five would make fireworks on the offensive end. Still, the 2019-20 season likely won’t result in an elite finish for New York. The team will need time to gel, and the young players will need time to develop.
2020-21
With a big free-agent signing the season prior, the 2020-21 season would be the best year for the Knicks in recent memory. The Knicks, not too far over the cap, would target even more cheap veterans to round out their roster in Free Agency and come back with the rookies having a year of playoff experience under their belts.
By this time, the Nkitilina-Knox-Robinson trio should progress into an above average core. Porzingis and the Free Agent (let’s say Durant in this instance) will set the league ablaze with unrivaled shot-creation skill and underrated defense. Tim Hardaway Jr. will be 28 and still producing at a high clip. In just two years’ time, the Knicks will have transformed from one of the league’s laughingstocks into one of the league’s juggernauts.