There are many different types of teams as we approach the NBA trading deadline on February 6th. Some franchises want to trade away talent to kickstart or further a rebuild. Others have a good thing going but don’t want to hamper their progress by making a foolish deal. There are also teams who feel ready to go all-in for a championship by significantly upgrading their roster. The New York Knicks are stuck between being patient and pushing their chips to the middle. There are good reasons for both approaches, but their incredible offense says the Knicks should think about an all-in trade.<\/p>\n
Those against New York being aggressive at the deadline cite several very fair reasons. There are three teams, two of which are in the East, who have had better seasons, in Cleveland, Boston, and Oklahoma City. Any deal the Knicks do may still have them falling short of those squads, as they have done all four times they matched up<\/a>. They have more clear weaknesses than those teams, at least so far. Lastly, this core group likely has many more cracks at a title together, as all five starters are between 27 and 29 years old. So, why do I say that GM Leon Rose must look at deals to improve the roster?<\/p>\n Tom Thibodeau’s defense has drawn a ton of criticism this year, and rightly so. They started the season playing no defense, and have had hot stretches where they guard well, but have been mediocre on that end for most of the campaign. Currently, their defensive rating sits at 112.7<\/a>, good for 14th in the league. While this level of defense likely isn’t good enough to beat the aforementioned elite teams on their way to a title, they’re closer than you may think.<\/p>\n When you have an offense as potent as the Knicks<\/a>, you only need to slow opponents down, not shut them down. Although championship teams rarely have non-top-10 defenses, it is possible. The most recent example is the 2023 Denver Nuggets<\/a>, who had the 15th-ranked defense, but their fifth-ranked offense overcame those leaks. By the numbers, New York’s offense is considerably better than that Nuggets unit, sitting at second in the league for most of the season.<\/p>\n Now, Denver ratcheted up the intensity in the postseason, as champions with middling regular season defenses often do. They were the fourth-ranked defense and best offense in the playoffs<\/a> as they went on a dominant 16-4 run to the title. Luckily for the Knicks, they have much more defensive talent than that Denver squad. They’ve also shown the capability to be a lockdown unit for stretches (106.2 DRTG from November 29th to January 1st, which ranks 3rd over that span<\/a>).<\/p>\n When Mikal Bridges<\/a> and OG Anunoby<\/a> guard like their usual selves, this defense is more than good enough<\/a> to win four playoff series, considering how absurd their offense is.<\/p>\n For the Knicks, pushing their chips to the middle doesn’t mean a radical roster change. With five starters making north of $18M<\/a> a year, the lineup is set. The bench is what needs an upgrade, mostly for depth purposes. After last year’s injury debacle in the postseason left NY hopeless in a Game 7 loss on their home floor to Indiana, Rose should do everything he can to avoid that kind of ending.<\/p>\n When Mitchell Robinson<\/a> returns, Thibs has a full bench<\/a> consisting of Deuce McBride<\/a>, Cameron Payne<\/a>, Landry Shamet<\/a>, Precious Achiuwa<\/a>, and Robinson. That already is a very solid second unit, especially defensively. If the Knicks want to ride it out with these 10 players, that decision would be completely fair and still give them a title chance. However, Rose should be aggressive in finding role-player upgrades for Payne and Shamet.<\/p>\n Even if bringing in additional depth or a bench upgrade requires sending away valuable assets, New York should still consider a possible move. We’ve seen what this team looks like when they’re exhausted or out of playable bodies. Thibodeau is unlikely to budge on playing younger guys as the stakes get higher, and rightfully so.<\/p>\n Chris Boucher<\/a> from Toronto and Javonte Green<\/a> from New Orleans are two names who have been linked to the Knicks<\/a>. Both players would provide the Knicks with extra depth, defense, and energy. Whether it’s Green<\/a>, Boucher,\u00a0or any other proven role player, the Knicks should definitely consider bringing in more talent. Their second-ranked offense demands it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo credit: \u00a9 Stephen Lew-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are many different types of teams as we approach the NBA trading deadline on February 6th. Some franchises want to trade away talent to kickstart or further a rebuild. Others have a good thing going but don’t want to hamper their progress by making a foolish deal. There are also teams who feel ready […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5412,"featured_media":120794,"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":[906,3306,662],"class_list":["post-120752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-trade-rumors","tag-chris-boucher","tag-javonte-green","tag-nba-trade-deadline"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120752","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\/5412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120795,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120752\/revisions\/120795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}New York’s Offense is too Good to Waste a Season\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Their Defense Can Be Competent Enough\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Knicks “All-In” Trade is a Smaller Deal<\/strong><\/h3>\n