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Earlier this offseason, the New York Knicks made a big splash by trading for talented guard/forward Mikal Bridges of the Brooklyn Nets, bringing him across the river in exchange for the equivalent of five first round picks to go along with Bojan Bogdanovic. It was a hefty price to pay for a player who has never made an All-Star team; however, Bridges figures to bring another dimension to a Knicks team that now has a legitimate claim to being the second best squad in the Eastern Conference, behind only the Boston Celtics.
One of the more fun storylines surrounding the Bridges to New York trade was the fact that it teamed the star up with several of his old teammates from his college days with the Villanova Wildcats: Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Donte DiVincenzo. The four teammates will now be a part of what fans are already calling the ‘Nova Knicks, and recently, Hart took to his account on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter, to react to a video the Knicks' official team account posted of Bridges arriving in the locker room.
“DO NOT put his locker next to mine,” wrote Hart, who has been long known to have a joking personality online, especially as it pertains to his former college teammates.
What is the Knicks ceiling?
While Hart may be a jokester off the floor, on it, he is as serious as they come, as well as the rest of his Knicks teammates, who have garnered a reputation as being one of the, if not the toughest team in the league ever since Tom Thibodeau took over as the head coach a few seasons ago.
Since making their return to the playoffs in 2021, the Knicks have been a strong defensive team, and the offense received a significant boost with the arrival of Jalen Brunson in the 2022 offseason. However, many viewed New York as still not having quite enough firepower to compete with the upper echelon teams of the NBA. The Bridges trade could change then.
New York now has two of the premier two way players in the league in its starting lineup with Bridges and OG Anunoby, and Brunson is a solid defender for his size as well. It remains to be seen how Julius Randle, who missed the second half of last season with a shoulder injury, will be able to adjust his isolation heavy game to a team that is clearly trying to copy the Boston Celtics' style of ball movement and three-point reliance that just led them to an NBA championship.
The biggest hole on the Knicks' roster right now is at the center position, with Mitchell Robinson being the only viable option on the roster at that spot right now, and he doesn't exactly have the most encouraging injury history.
However, if New York is able to shore up that position, they will have one of the most complete rosters in the NBA, and will have as good of a chance as anyone not named the Celtics to represent the East in the NBA Finals next year.
