Are the Knicks championship ready?
After defeating the Sacramento Kings at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night by 103-87, they were 28-18 heading into Toronto to face the Raptors last night (Wednesday), the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, and on a three-game winning streak after losing their previous four. Such inconsistency gives pause to declaring the Knicks an unequivocal threat to get to the finals.
Team president Leon Rose has directed the franchise with discernible intentionality since being hired by Knicks owner James Dolan in March of 2020. Under Rose’s leadership, the Knicks have made the playoffs in four of his five full seasons at the helm.
He took over the reins in 2020 with just 16 games left in the NBA’s COVID-19 pandemic shortened season with the Knicks 15-36. They finished 21-45 under then head coach David Fizdale, a hire of former team president Phil Jackson, and interim head coach Mike Miller after Fizdale was fired in December of 2019.
Prior to Rose’s tenure, the Knicks failed to reach the postseason from the 2013-14 campaign through the 2019-20 season. Over the past two they have been Eastern Conference semifinalists and conference finalists respectively. Now, the next rung on the ladder of achievement is playing in the NBA Finals, a goal Dolan, Rose, Mike Brown, the team’s first-year head coach, and the players expected to attain when the season began.
But the prevailing question that permeates those that follow the league and the Knicks intently is: Are they an Eastern Conference championship team as constructed today despite the conference lacking a squad that has been stamped as the certified favorite? With the NBA trade deadline next Thursday, it is a consideration that has to be the most pressing issue facing Rose and the Knicks front office.
The Pistons are real. They are the East’s No. 1 seed and were 34-11, 6.5 games ahead of the Knicks when the league’s schedule tipped off last night. But they are beatable. The Boston Celtics are the surprising No. 2 seed, 29-17 as of yesterday.
The Knicks were built to win now. It is why Rose traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley in December of 2023 to the Toronto Raptors for OG Anunoby. Then dealt five first round picks (2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031 picks), four of them unprotected, to the Brooklyn Nets in June of 2024 for forward Mikal Bridges, a trade that at the time, and in hindsight, was and remains unpopular among a segment of the Knicks’ fanbase. Their valid argument is the price Rose paid for Bridges was too hefty for a player who has never made an NBA All-Star team.
Then four months after acquiring Bridges, Rose pushed more chips onto the center of the table by parting with three-time All-Star and two-time All NBA forward Julius Randle to secure forward/center Karl Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Towns’ resume reads five time All-Star and three-time All-NBA third team.
But do they have enough to get out of the East? Will Rose make what would be his most bold and ambitious move, surpassing the firing of former head coach Tom Thibodeau last June, to go all in and execute a trade for Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, one of the handful of the league’s force multipliers, a singular difference maker?
Rose is notoriously mum with the media. So his thought process is insulated. We’ll know more about what he thinks by his actions or inaction in the days ahead.
The Knicks host the Portland Trailblazers at MSG tomorrow and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.