{"id":129081,"date":"2025-03-17T06:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T10:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=129081"},"modified":"2025-03-17T06:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T10:30:09","slug":"knicks-owner-james-dolan-roster-building-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/17\/knicks-owner-james-dolan-roster-building-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Owner Imparts Roster-Building Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the first season that this version of the New York Knicks have been together and it won\u2019t be their last. Though it hasn\u2019t always been pretty<\/a>, they still sit at 42-24, third in the Eastern Conference standings. That\u2019s the type of success that most, if not all, franchises should be happy with.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, on a podcast co-hosted by two of his players, Knicks owner James Dolan expressed his desire to keep their momentum going<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Knicks Owner James Dolan Imparts Roster-Building Knowledge<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe have a team that\u2019s going to be together for a while,\u201d Dolan says. \u201cLeon (Rose) has done a good job of lining up the contracts and everything else. So this isn\u2019t our only season. We\u2019re going to play a bunch of seasons together.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou take a look at teams like (the Boston Celtics) that have played together, they get to draw off of something that they built over that period of time,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd for this team, that\u2019s the challenge, really\u2026 to build that inside of the team. Something we can draw on.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Dolan notes, Knicks president Leon Rose has been shrewd in making sure that many of their core player\u2019s contracts align.<\/p>\n

Mikal Bridges<\/a> and Mitchell Robinson<\/a>\u2019s contracts expire in 2026. Josh Hart<\/a> and Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>\u2019s contracts expire in 2028. Jalen Brunson could become a free agent that same year or wait until 2029, when OG Anunoby<\/a>\u2019s contract expires.<\/p>\n

Bridges, whom they traded a bevy of first-rounders for, will likely re-sign. Robinson\u2019s future is more uncertain but there will probably be mutual interest on a new deal. Hart, Anunoby, Towns, and Brunson will all be in their 30s the next time they become free agents. To that point, they probably won\u2019t be rushing to leave, especially if New York is still competitive.<\/p>\n

With that being said, don\u2019t expect the Knicks to chase down stars<\/a> like the Los Angeles Lakers, who in some ways are their Western Conference counterparts. Stars flock to big cities and glamour markets. Franchises in those areas are usually looking for stars. However, everything that glitters isn\u2019t gold.<\/p>\n

Better Late Than Never<\/h3>\n

After 25-plus years in the business, Dolan knows that now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times when (we\u2019ve) sort of reached for that shiny, sparkly object. \u2018Maybe this is what we need.\u2019 Especially when things weren\u2019t going well,\u201d he admits. \u201c\u2018Let\u2019s bring in this guy and maybe he\u2019ll turn it all around for us.\u2019 Sometimes it\u2019s players, sometimes it\u2019s a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned over time is that doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he tells Brunson and Hart. \u201cIt really doesn\u2019t. You really have to do the fundamentals, the basics. You\u2019ve got to build a team, you\u2019ve got to build an organization. There is no waving a wand over a team and all of a sudden make it a great team. It doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that Dolan signed or traded for every member of the Knicks\u2019 core rotation besides Robinson and Miles McBride<\/a>, his assessment might be met with skepticism.<\/p>\n

After all, it\u2019s not like he drafted his best players. The Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets, and even the Orlando Magic can boast about that. New York can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he\u2019s right about the process of actually building<\/em> a team. The NBA isn\u2019t like 2K, where pressing a button in GM Mode could transform a franchise, taking them from a bottom-feeder to top-tier organization. Teams have to work at being great. In practice and in games.<\/p>\n

That takes time.<\/p>\n

How much the Knicks need to win a championship remains to be seen. However, with Thibodeau\u2019s principles and the team\u2019s chemistry, their talent won\u2019t be wasted. Not when they\u2019re doing all they can \u2014individually and collectively \u2014to build themselves into a great team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the first season that this version of the New York Knicks have been together and it won\u2019t be their last. Though it hasn\u2019t always been pretty, they still sit at 42-24, third in the Eastern Conference standings. That\u2019s the type of success that most, if not all, franchises should be happy with. That\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":129089,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1608,62,3],"tags":[1417,723,1004,213,1484,1616,1382,1082],"class_list":["post-129081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knicks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-james-dolan","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba-trade","tag-og-anunoby"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129081","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\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129081"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129091,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129081\/revisions\/129091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}