With months of drama over and the New York Knicks trading Carmelo Anthony, the team now enters the revitalizing era with Kristaps Porzingis as the leader.
The New York Knicks were able to get a Carmelo Anthony deal done and pulled the trigger, surprisingly with the Oklahoma City Thunder. This was probably the last team most people had pegged as a potential final destination for Anthony. Yet with a close look, it made the most sense for both teams.
Brace yourselves Knicks fans, because here comes the media circus where this trade becomes ridiculed as the “dumbest trade ever.” Aside from landing Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott, the Knicks also received a sweetener in the form of a 2018 second round pick.
Yes, these are two relatively unknown role players who are still proving their worth. Of course the 2018 NBA Draft feels light years away while the 2017-18 season has yet to begin, and sure, on the surface this deal can feel greatly one-sided as the Knicks lost one of their greatest players in franchise history for bench players and no first round pick.
However, the writing was on the wall when Anthony had a no-trade clause and Phil Jackson played the role of heckler-in-chief. The Knicks were never going to receive high value for Anthony on a market where he was constantly devalued. Almost all of the damage done can be put solely on the shoulders of Phil Jackson.
With that out of the way, hopefully, Knicks fans and the media can now turn their attention to more positive matters.
The Kristaps Porzingis era
Kristaps Porzingis is certainly eager to prove himself capable of being the team’s leader and top option scorer. This summer he denounced rumors of being unhappy in New York. He even went as far to say he hopes to remain there for his entire career.
Last season, the former All-Rookie finished fifth in the league in blocks on 18.1 points per game with 7.2 rebounds per game. With Anthony gone, grumbles of the stunting of Kristaps Porzingis’ growth can now be muted. The main issue now is filling the gap of the perennial isolation scorer Melo was.
The Knicks did not address a long-term solution at forward through the trade with the Thunder.
New York Knicks
Kanter adds depth to an already very solid cast of bigs in New York, which also means more roster moves may be in the future. He is shooting 53.0 percent from the field and averaging 11.3 points per game for his career. Again, the Knicks surely has plenty of depth in their frontcourt. It shouldn’t come as a surprise if the Knicks finish in the top five rebounding teams during 2017-18.
For a deeper look into Kanter, you can find a solid analysis here.
Doug McDermott is officially a journeyman by title. The New York Knicks are his third team in just three seasons. However, as a role playing forward his numbers say he might be a solid fit in New York for the time being. He is shooting 44.6 percent from the field while hitting 39.4 percent from beyond the arc, above the league average.
Averaging 8.0 points per game on just 20.2 minutes for his career, he certainly does not bring an improved defensive game to the Garden. He has a career -2.6 Defensive Box Plus/Minus, which is a supposed point of emphasis for the current rebuild.
Micheal Beasley is likely to fill in as the starting 3 to start the season, likely with Mindaugas Kuzminskas as the primary player off the bench. Lance Thomas is entering a season where he will need to offer much more offensively, while McDermott will have to drastically improve his defense.
What’s next and what to expect
One thing that must be understood from this trade and start of a new era is that this is truly only the beginning. It is almost certain more moves will be made — maybe not in the upcoming weeks, but certainly by the trade deadline.
The New York Knicks are over-stacked at nearly every position. At point guard, there’s Frank Ntilikina, Jarrett Jack and Ramon Sessions. The shooting guards are Courtney Lee, Tim Hardaway Jr., Damyean Dotson and Ron Baker. At forward they have Beasley, Kuz, Thomas and McDermott. Finally, the big men include KP, Willy Hernangomez, Joakim Noah, Kyle O’ Quinn and Enes Kanter.
A decent guess of a starting five at the regular season would now likely be Sessions, THJ, Beasley, KP and Hernangomez. It feels like this team can end up winning at least 30 games on the season with the amount of depth available in their rotation.
The best guess is some sort of veteran package consisting of Lee and possibly O’Quinn would make the most sense in getting a decent draft pick from a team struggling at the midway point of 2017-18.
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With training camp kicking off and the biggest distraction for the development of the Knicks’ young core gone, the team can finally embrace the change coming in the new Kristaps Porzingis Era.