New York Knicks: What can they learn from the Los Angeles Lakers’ rebuild?

Should the New York Knicks for the Los Angeles Lakers’ blueprint?

The New York Knicks are getting set to embark on a new phase for the franchise with recently hired Leon Rose coming to help the organization as president of basketball operations. With his hiring comes hope, the hope that Knicks fans have long been yearning for.

That hope is much needed for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2013, a team that hasn’t won a championship since 1973. Returning a franchise to prominence that once held such a storied history and is beloved as one of the NBA’s original franchises is a tall task, one that Leon Rose is willing to undertake.

Looking at the Knicks, and Rose’s background as a renowned super-agent turned NBA executive, there’s been a blueprint laid out that Rose can look to follow, but also learn from the past mistakes. That blueprint coming from the current incarnation of the Los Angeles Lakers.

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The Lakers are franchise known for just as much glory as the Knicks have had, if not more. Sixteen championships, a storied history as an original NBA team as well in the only city in America that could ever rival New York, Los Angeles.

The Lakers, like the Knicks, took a steep fall grace in the early 2010s. As Kobe Bryant’s Achilles tore and his play diminished so did the Lakers. Just like the Knicks, the Lakers, until this season, hadn’t made the playoffs since 2013. To bring the team back to glory, the Lakers also hired a former agent in Rob Pelinka.

Now, as the Lakers await a destined championship run in Orlando at the end of this month, the question becomes what can Leon Rose glean from the Lakers build back to the top? Certainly above all, two things stand out that Rose can replicate, but also learn from. That being how the team handles pursuing star players, and how the team handles the development of their young roster.

What would that look like for the New York Knicks?

It’s no secret that the Knicks have been hunting for a star to put under the bright lights of New York, but they have gone about it the wrong way. With all the speculation about the team’s pursuit of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving this past season, the team came up empty. So what can Rose take from Pelinka and the Lakers in that department?

What Rose and his office can do for the Knicks can do is two-fold. First, in free agency, Rose’s Knicks need to go after star players more aggressively than the Knicks have done in the past. Many times, it seems like the Knicks just assume players are going to pick the Knicks because of New York.

That could often lead to poor free agent meetings and lackluster free agency outings, which is exactly what we know of the Knicks as of late. Following the Lakers’ plan, the Knicks need to truly be all-in on a plan and execute it to the best of their abilities. If they still fail, they can chalk it up to the uncertainty of player movement.

After that, they can use their resources to pursue a trade, because after Rose’s Knicks get the one star to buy into their vision then other stars around the league would want to get there. With all the young talent and draft capital on the Knicks team, the Knicks could look to Lakers’ process for getting Anthony Davis as a way for them to attract a star as well.

The Lakers paid a steep price of young talent, and draft picks for a star they can bank on to be the face of the franchise for years to come. The Knicks have the same ability to that too with players like RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Frank Ntilikina, and Kevin Knox on the roster to go with all their first-round picks.

Where things really get interesting, and what is the cautionary tale for the Knicks, is their young talent. If you look back at the Lakers roster in the past, they have had Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, D’Angelo Russell, Lonzo Ball, and Brandon Ingram on their team. Some of those players are now All-Star caliber and the best young talent in the league, but never on the Lakers.

The Lakers’ star-eyed focus was a massive hit to the team’s development of young players. Sure, some of that talent went into netting Anthony Davis, but an argument can be made that if the Lakers put time and effort into developing their young talent that the team would be even better now. A lot of those players succeeded elsewhere because other organizations decided to put effort and resources into them.

That is exactly where Leon Rose can improve on the Lakers’ recent resurgence and actually build the Knicks up with long-term stability. Having recently called Barrett and Robinson “core pieces” to the Knicks’ future, Rose’s staff should put effort into developing the Knicks’ young talent.

If Rose can do that then the team can become much more viable for the future by having a homegrown All-Star in a market that a lot of players want to be in. Getting talent for much cheaper from a team’s own draft picks bodes well for their future. It was the technique teams like the Spurs, Warriors, and Celtics have used to great success.

With Leon Rose’s hiring, there’s a reason for Knicks fans to feel hopeful and the best thing for Rose might be to look at the Lakers’ recent rise and improve on it by implementing some of the techniques used by other teams for team building to finally bring the New York Knicks back to success.