A couple of weeks ago, the New York Knicks made one of the biggest NBA offseason splashes by trading for talented guard/forward Mikal Bridges of the Brooklyn Nets, sending him across the river in exchange for the equivalent of five first round picks (!!!) to go along with Bojan Bogdanovic. It was a steep price to pay for a player who has never made an All-Star team; however, Bridges figures to bring another level to a Knicks team that now has a real claim to being the second best squad in the Eastern Conference, behind only the Boston Celtics, who just won the NBA championship.
Bridges of course joins the growing list of Knicks players who played their college basketball for the Villanova Wildcats together, including Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Donte DiVincenzo, each of whom won a championship during their time with that organization, and it seems that the star is looking forward to playing under the league's brightest lights at Madison Square Garden full time, if his introductory press conference is any indication.
“Excited to be a Knick, excited to play at MSG, excited to see my guy Spike courtside… Hate that it's the summer because you got to wait a long time to play,” said Bridges, via Knicks Videos on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter (per ClutchPoints).
“Spike” would of course refer to longtime Knicks fan Spike Lee, who has been a staple courtside at the arena since the 1990s and his famous spats with Reggie Miller of the Indiana Pacers back in those days. Lee has understandably been quite enthusiastic about his Knicks over the last couple of years as they've made a turnaround, led by point guard Jalen Brunson and head coach Tom Thibodeau, back into relevance in the NBA after being its symbol of ineptitude for well over a decade.
Where do the Knicks rank in the NBA?
On paper, the Knicks figure to have one of the best starting lineups in the entire league in Brunson, Bridges, OG Anunoby, Julius Randle, and Mitchell Robinson. The team also has quite a bit of depth with Deuce McBride, Hart, and Donte DiVincenzo coming off of the bench with some firepower.
It's a fair question to ask just how much Julius Randle will be able to change his game to complement the pieces around him. Randle has long been known to play a very isolation heavy style of basketball, one that works to some extent in the regular season but has led to two historically bad performances in the playoffs for the Knicks over the last few years. For a Knicks squad that is clearly trying to emulate the three and d ball movement style of the reigning champion Celtics, Randle will have to at least slightly diminish those tendencies in order to make the most out of New York's talented lineup of players.
However, if Randle is able to adjust his game and the Knicks don't deal with any major injuries (which is a big if), there's no reason why New York can't be the second best team in the east once again.
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