Minnamaker wrote:Having thought about this trade for a couple of days, I am still hyped it happened (together with the rockets trade). I understand chemistry and Bridges being on a great contract, but I can't believe we got 5 1st round picks for him. As a neutral fan, the Knicks are probably fun to watch, playing hard with solid defense, but in no way I see them getting over the hump with this trade. I might be wrong, but I think they are stuck in mediocracy with no way to improve (massive overpay for OG as well). The east is to weak for them not to be top 3 in the regular season. Thib's Teams have a history of playing hard every game and thus overachieving in the regular season. They were a second round exit this season, Bridges is just not enough.
For us, that means probably low first round picks until they realize and blow it up, which could take a while. The picks gonna look great in 4-5 years though.
The only downside to this is realizing, that even a role player who would habe probably gotten a massive overpay as franchise player wanted out. Other than that, I am super happy about the future of the Nets.
I think Marks still looks at a short rebuild, i wonder if it'll work this way. If I understand correctly, we have 3 first round picks next draft, Simmons is going to be off the books and about every free agent deal we made has the least amount of salary next season (for example Claxton and cam Johnson have their lowest salary year next season). We probably tank hard next season and are looking to draft heavy AND sign a big free agent next off-season. Even if that does not work, the future still looks great as we control our and most of the Knicks picks.
the knicks are interesting, they are really going to test the "is bridges a #2?" question. maybe he's 3 behind Randle in scoring, but i think he's their secondary ballhandler/best creator other than Brunson. As far as 1/2's go that's probably on the weaker side compared to recent finals teams with jokic/murray, luka/kyrie, tatum/brown, giannis/middleton/jrue, steph/klay etc.
in terms of matching up with the celtics, i agree i still dont quite see it. Is Brunson better than the Holiday/White combo? At his best yes but that is going to be a hard series for him getting guarded by both of those guys. Boston will match up just fine on the wings with Brown/Tatum vs OG/Bridges, so where is the Knicks advantage over them? Boston also has all their future picks except 29 (and an unlikely 28 swap with SAS). so whatever depth they lose like horford/KP they will be able to add.
Knicks should be a fun team but there is a lot on Brunson to not just be an MVP but maybe even improve over what he was last year against higher degree of difficulty teams, and with Thibs doing his usual thing probably playing his top guys heavy minutes. If they have a breakthrough it will be worth it but now lacking assets its not a no brainer they get over the hump. At best a coin flip, though it should be a fun 2-3 year run finding out.
