Coming off of what was arguably their most successful season since making the NBA Finals in 1999, the New York Knicks made the first major splash of the 2024 NBA offseason when they sent a half a dozen picks out the door to Brooklyn in order to acquire Mikal Bridges from their cross-town rival. Bridges is young, malleable, and durable, but perhaps most notably, he's a former Villanova teammate of current Knicks starters Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Donte DiVincenzo. At this point, why the Knicks wouldn't find a way to add Ryan Arcidiacono, Omari Spellman, Kris Jenkins, or Eric Paschall to their roster is beyond me.
While the continued growth of the Nova Knicks in New York is reason for folks in the Big Apple to get excited, it's a team-building strategy that will come with a price. Mikal Bridges is locked down for the next three years on a deal worth about $23 million annually. Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart will make a combined $30 million each year over the next three seasons. Jalen Brunson is making just shy of $25 million each of the next two seasons, but a long-term extension is coming. Consider that OG Anunoby just agreed to a $212 million extension, and Julius Randle remains on the books through the end of the 2025-26 season, so in case you don't have a calculator nearby, the Knicks are running out of money to spend.
Aside from Anunoby and the four Nova Knicks, every other player in New York is expendable. That includes the very expensive (and currently injured) Julius Randle, as well center Mitchell Robinson, who will be making about $13.5 million each of the next two seasons before entering unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2026. Robinson, who has been hampered by injuries since leading the league in field goal percentage during his second NBA season, was recently a guest on The Roommates Show, a podcast hosted by Brunson and Hart, and the three Knicks teammates spoke openly about Robinson potentially being the subject of trade rumors this summer.
“Well I’m going to start this off with the elephant in the room, Mitch, a lot of trade rumors going around, what are your thoughts? I just want to know who do you deal with it.” Brunson asked.
“It doesn't really affect me at all,” Robinson replied. “I really haven’t been paying attention to it. I mean my friends tell me that s**t, but I do basically the same thing. I don’t be paying attention, just in my own world, still doing what I do.”
Josh Hart then threw his support behind the 26-year-old center, noting that Robinson is, “a great locker room guy, great for morale,” but unfortunately for the Knicks, there's no relief against the cap provided to great locker room guys.
Can the “Nova Knicks” bring New York an NBA Title?
It's been 25 years since the New York Knicks last made an NBA Finals appearance, and a staggering 51 years since they were crowned NBA champions. Now their title hopes rest on the shoulders of a quartet of players who won a National Title together as teammates at Villanova, just a little over 100 miles away from Madison Square Garden. Brunson, Bridges, and DiVincenzo were all freshmen on the 2016 championship team, but stayed with the program, continued to develop, and were the three leading scorers for the Wildcats when they cut down the nets again in 2018.
Whether the Knicks have enough to hang with the defending NBA Champion Boston Celtics, a fully healthy Milwaukee Bucks squad, the potentially revamped Philadelphia 76ers, or the upstart Indiana Pacers remains to be seen, but you better believe that the 19,812 fans who pack inside of MSG for each Knicks home game will have the Larry O'Brien Trophy in the back of their minds.
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