NBA Trade Rumors: The New York Knicks, will as many future assets as they have, could be looking to make two big moves during the offseason.
No matter what happens over the course of the next couple of months for the New York Knicks, this is a team that has made major strides over the last 12 months as an organization. They are no longer amongst the laughing stock in the league and will finish as a top 5 seed in the Eastern Conference with only room to grow moving forward.
Heading into the offseason, the Knicks will have every opportunity and all the flexibility in the world to continue to improve the roster. Even though the Knicks aren’t considered part of the elite in the East, this is a team that may be one or two moves away from being a very dangerous contender.
And it would be surprising if that’s not a priority the Knicks had this summer – to cash in their assets in an attempt to take a big step forward heading into next season. New York nearly made such a move last summer (ultimately losing out on the Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes), but there is a sense that this team is going to aim for the stars this offseason.
In the words of ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the Knicks have the assets “to trade for two star-level players” if they want to.
The New York Knicks have the assets and an appealing roster
While you can laugh at the Knicks all you want, these are not the same old Knicks. This is not a New York team waiving their city as what is going to attract a star. No, this is a franchise that has built up its future assets, has talented young players, and a level of success that would be appealing to a star.
Plus, they have New York.
Heading into this offseason, the Knicks have roughly six first-round picks due to them in the next three years. And then they own every single one of their future first-round picks after that. In other words, the Knicks have picks to spare. Finding the necessary future first-round picks to juice up a trade offer is a problem of the past for New York.
But that’s not all that the Knicks have in their favor. On top of that, they have good young players that would be appealing to other teams. If they wanted to, the Knicks could trade RJ Barrett for a big fish. But assuming he would be off the table, New York still has good young pieces that they could move for a star – including Mitchell Robinson, Obi Toppin, Immanuel Quickley, and Quentin Grimes.
The contracts of Evan Fournier (which is essentially expiring after next season) and Julius Randle (if the team doesn’t believe he is part of the long-term future) could also be useful in search of a star-level talent.
The Knicks have the recipe to secure a star player. It’s all a matter of pulling the trigger for the right one. And you can bet that the Knicks will be fishing this offseason, perhaps even for two of those big-fish stars.