The Knicks have had a good offseason as can have a franchise mired in a 20-year crisis. They hired the best man available for their open coaching job in Tom Thibodeau. They made a number of excellent hires to track down his staff and front office, especially assistant coaches Kenny Payne and Johnnie Bryant.
They had a bad night in the lottery, but that’s the norm for the team for the past 35 years, and if there was a bad copy to take a stance it was probably this one. There was no obvious cornerstone of the franchise, although it would certainly have been intriguing to see if LaMelo Ball lives up to its reputation.
The important business will start soon enough. The most essential part of the Knicks immediate project is also the simplest, in theory: get better players. Get more talent. The Knicks have been an epic and furious failure for two decades and there’s no mystery as to why: most nights, dating back to 2000, they had inferior players to the other guy. Basketball is a simple game to understand in some ways.
The inner core – RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Julius Randle (average age 22.5) – is the brick for now, and all three are players who should thrive in Thibodeau’s system, which will be heavy on player development.
The immediate need, the screaming, crying desperate need is for a professional point guard. Frank Ntilikina showed flashes, but by year 4 the Knicks need to see more than flashes. Dennis Smith Jr. has been a tease his entire career, and the Knicks can no longer afford to be seduced by what he could be but probably won’t.
There will be point guards galore available in the draft, starting with Ball, but the most intriguing one who seems most likely to fall to the Knicks at number 8 is Cole Anthony.
Anthony could be worth the bet on the future, a city kid (Archbishop Molloy) who would be a legacy of the Knicks (his old man is Greg, an NCAA champion at UNLV and a member of the Knicks ’94 Finalists). But it is a bet. He had an injured and underwhelming freshman year in North Carolina, struggled as a shooter (.380) and his assist to turnover ratio was 4.0 / 3.5.
For the Knicks, the smartest game is to find an established point guard and make him an immediate part of that foundation, leaving them free to take the best player available at number 8 or turn into more assets for their deep pile of the same. And assuming the Knicks have been paying reluctant attention to the Nets’ adventures in the NBA bubble, they have to seriously think about making Fred VanVleet an offer he can’t refuse.
VanVleet emerged in last year’s playoffs for the Raptors and this year has blossomed into a level point guard just below the elite who can score (17.6 points per person), shoot (39% off 3), deal (6 , 6 assists) and playing defense (his 1.9 steals per game are double his previous high). He’s also played in the kind of winning environment throughout his career that Thibodeau wants – and needs – to create here.
Is it child’s play? It is not. He’s small (6ft-1), and while he’s young (26), you’re also talking with him about another 2-3 years before the Knicks regularly play the kind of big games Toronto plays now. VanVleet said he wants to stay in Toronto, which makes perfect sense on many levels, and that means the Knicks will have to pay for the privilege.
And while they will have plenty of room for the immediate salary cap, there will forever be the looming specter (no matter how deep it may be) of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
But the Knicks have spent too many years – too many decades – relying on confident future results rather than building an immediate infrastructure that can last. Kevin Durant never came here. LeBron James never came here (multiple times). Anthony Davis is a free agent in a few months; does anyone have any hope of coming here?
Players want other players to play with them. Say what you want about Carmelo Anthony, but when he sought out the Knicks nine years ago, he did so knowing he would carry the weight of the franchise on his shoulders. Nobody wants it anymore. The best players want to know that they are coming to something solid and established.
You build it with talent. Build by collecting players good players want to play with. Fred VanVleet brings the Knicks closer to being that kind of destination, which hadn’t existed at Garden since dial-up internet still ruled the day. The time is right. He is the right player.
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