"Trade themselves into a great team": Brian Windhorst advises Knicks to exercise patience and hold out for ideal superstar
ESPN's Brian Windhorst sees the New York Knicks as a good and competitive team with the potential to be great if they exercise patience and prudence and wait out for a superstar player who could take them to the next level.
He highlighted this in the recent episode of ESPN’s "NBA Today", underscoring that the New York Knicks have good assets at their disposal to significantly improve themselves.
Windhorst said:
“I don’t know about the Conference Finals [if they will reach it in the upcoming season]… But the thing about the Knicks, if you want to be optimistic about it, is that they are upwardly mobile.
"Regardless of whether they are in the third seed, fourth seed or fifth seed like where they were last year, the draft picks that they have at their disposal and the contracts they have on their roster, in my view, they don’t have a bad contract on their roster, all of the contracts that they have signed are all movable.”
He added:
“They can play with this team and be competitive in the East or once a star player becomes available they can pivot after him. In fact, one of the challenges for the Knicks off the court over the next 12 to 18 months is to control themselves and wait for the player that they want to go all in for.”
The New York Knicks continued with their improvement last season, finishing with the fifth-best record in the Eastern Conference at 47-35. It was 10 more victories than what they had the previous year.
They made it all the way to the conference semi-finals, where they bowed out to eventual East champions Miami Heat in six games.
All-Star Julius Randle led the way for the Knicks, with able support from Jalen Brunson as well as R.J. Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Immanuel Quickly, Quintin Grimes and mid-season acquisition Josh Hart.
New York Knicks 2023-24 season roster:
Ryan Arcidiacono
RJ Barrett
Charlie Brown Jr.
Jalen Brunson
Donte DiVincenzo
Evan Fournier
Quentin Grimes
Josh Hart
Isaiah Hartenstein
DaQuan Jeffries
Nathan Knight
Jaylen Martin
Miles McBride
Immanuel Quickly
Julius Randle
Mitchell Robinson
Isaiah Roby
Jericho Sims
Jacob Toppin
Duane Washinton
Dylan Windler