{"id":118628,"date":"2025-01-19T11:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T16:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=118628"},"modified":"2025-01-19T10:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T15:20:20","slug":"knicks-dont-need-another-offensive-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/19\/knicks-dont-need-another-offensive-superstar\/","title":{"rendered":"The Knicks Don’t Need Another Offensive Superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a 27-16 record, the Knicks have a \u00a062.8 win percentage, just 2.5 games behind the two-seed Boston Celtics. The Knicks are currently on pace to win nearly 52 games this season, their best regular season record since the 2012-13 season (54-28) or the 1996-97 season (57-25) depending on their finish. The Knicks haven’t had back-to-back 50-win seasons since the start of the 21st century. The arrival of Jalen Brunson<\/a> signaled a new start in the Garden, one where the Knicks would be relevant again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite all of this, news articles with fake trades asking the Knicks to give up OG Anunoby<\/a>\u00a0and Mikal Bridges<\/a> seem like a daily occurrence. The New York Knicks built this team with a thought process in mind. Here’s why trading for another superstar will not solve any of their issues.<\/p>\n

The Knicks Don’t Need Another Offensive Superstar<\/h2>\n

Issues are Defense-Oriented<\/h3>\n

The Knicks give up 111.1 points per game<\/a>, ninth in the league, but their defensive rating<\/a> is 114.4, 15th. While the Knicks limit the number of possessions their opponents get up, they are not extremely effective at stopping them during those possessions, and this has hurt the Knicks all season long. Only three other teams are worse at defending the three-ball than the Knicks, who allow opponents to shoot 37.8% from beyond the arc<\/a>. Their penchant for doubling the ball-handler and leaving the open man has been a source of frustration for fans all season, and such a tactic has a drastic negative impact. Despite not giving up many wide-open threes (just 17.7 a game), opponents shoot 40.9%<\/a> in these situations, fourth-best in the league.<\/p>\n

The lack of capable rim protectors and defenders on the bench has been a concern for the Knicks, who do not have men to turn to when the starters are not playing well. For example, against OKC on Friday, Jan 10, Bridges and Anunoby combined to score just four points in 68 minutes. They should not have been playing those minutes on a bad night, and yet the Knicks didn’t have a wing to come in for them.<\/p>\n

Adding an offensive superstar will heighten this issue. Even if Leon Rose<\/a> can somehow build a trade package, doing such a trade will force the Knicks to win every game as a shootout.<\/p>\n

The Team Needs Depth<\/h3>\n

Any trade<\/a> for Devin Booker<\/a>, or a Steph Curry<\/a> trade<\/a> will result in a team giving up multiple first-round picks and players to match salaries. The Knicks do not have many first-round picks after the Bridges trade<\/a>, and they are already a top-heavy team. Mortgaging a starter and any player(s) from their bench lineup will increase the onus on the starters to perform well, and they cannot afford that. Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> has arguably been their best player<\/a> this season, and he has already been hampered by multiple minor injuries<\/a>, including a bone chip in his thumb.<\/p>\n

Trading for a superstar will eliminate any semblance of depth that the Knicks currently have. Their already high minutes load will skyrocket, bringing fatigue and risk of major injury into the play. Despite a stellar start to the season, Anunoby’s track record is filled with major injuries. Additionally, he has not been the same since landing on his elbow on Jan 10.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

The Knicks have their starting five. It is highly unlikely that the front office will break them up before the deadline. The front office will focus on building the team’s bench. Rose has shown fans his ability to pull off blockbuster deals, and fans should expect a revamped bench heading out of the All-Star break. The front office will look to add a consistent and able rim-protector if Mitchell Robinson<\/a> cannot come back from his injury. They might look to add wings to supplement their trio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a 27-16 record, the Knicks have a \u00a062.8 win percentage, just 2.5 games behind the two-seed Boston Celtics. The Knicks are currently on pace to win nearly 52 games this season, their best regular season record since the 2012-13 season (54-28) or the 1996-97 season (57-25) depending on their finish. The Knicks haven’t had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5089,"featured_media":118926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12,4721],"tags":[1417,213,1616,1382,1082,48],"class_list":["post-118628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-trade-rumors","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba-trade","tag-og-anunoby","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118628"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118927,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118628\/revisions\/118927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}