In the early hours after Kevin Durant became a Brooklyn Net, I wrote that the Knicks were lucky to have missed out on a 30-year-old generational superstar:
For the first time, there will be expectations and the heat of the Gotham spotlight. Durant struggled with the press in Oklahoma City. Even with all his individual and team success as a Warrior, he argues with nobodies online. How’s it going to go when the New York media starts reporting whispers about his recovery taking too long? Or if he returns and doesn’t look like himself? That’d be natural, of course. But when’s the last time the NYC sports media backed off a headline because patience is natural?
Now, with less than a week till the trade deadline, the gossip girls known as “sports journalists” are all in heat, releasing fat juicy rumors about the suddenly available Giannis Antetokounmpo. A goodly sum of that gesticulating lists the Knicks as a leading candidate to trade away what little depth they have for a 31-year-old out 4-6 weeks with his second significant non-contact calf injury of the half-season, then pay him $59 million next season and $69 million per when he’s 34-37 years old.
I’ve been wrong about the NBA too many times to count. While watching the 1993 draft with a friend who rooted for the Lakers, I swore their second-round pick that year would never amount to anything, some guard from Cincinnati I’d never heard of; Nick Van Exel not only went on to become an All-Star, but one of my favorite players ever. Frank Williams? Earl Barron? Two Knicks I was as sure were Springfield-bound as Ewing and Melo. I’ve defended Derek Fisher, Kurt Rambis, Jose Calderon and Enes Freedom, all on the record.
There’s dumb, there’s dim, and there’s the village idiot, and I been one and two enough to know three is always a distinct possibility.
So when I say I don’t want the Knicks to trade for Giannis — particularly midseason — take it with a huge grain of salt. Speaking of yuuuuge, you saw the photo image for this article? Antetokounmpo’s shoulder is bigger than Josh Hart’s SKULL. Man’s the closest thing the league’s had to Shaq since Shaq. He’s finished top-4 in MVP voting the past seven seasons; the only players to do that since I started watching in 1990 are Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. The GOATS of GOATS, and Giannis. That’s it.
Antetokounmpo would pro’ly be a better fit alongside Jalen Brunson than any of his other New York co-stars. Brunson and Julius Randle never got going in the pick-and-roll, and since the opening months last season the Brunson/KAT model’s been less hot than not. Brunson’s an iso guard. KAT would fit best alongside a Luka, a Cade, a Trae Young, a pick-and-roll virtuoso. Antetokounmpo, more a soloist, would fit more naturally beside Brunson.
As for the defensive upgrade: I am 6 feet tall. When I played basketball long ago as a young person, I was renowned for my quick hands and defensive instincts. While I am still 6 feet tall, I am anything but young. I’m out of shape. I’d probably drop dead if I played halfcourt for 20 minutes, much less full-court. And yet I say to you, friend, the difference in defensive quality at the NBA level between myself and Karl-Anthony Towns is no greater than that between KAT and Giannis. KAT’s defense makes you smack your head in disbelief. Giannis, too, for altogether different reasons of disbelief.
Antetokounmpo’s a better offensive fit beside Brunson. He’d instantly make Mitch the Knicks’ second-best defensive player, which has never been true in Mitch’s career. Giannis has proven he’s great enough to lead a good team to a championship, and it’s not like he sounds any less hungry for a second; if anything, he’s kinda feening. The challenge of retuning the Knicks to the top is one he’d embrace. Forget “best Knick since Ewing”; Antetokounmpo would immediately have a case, as far as his current basketball powers, as the greatest Knick ever — full stop.
I don’t want him. Here’s why.
First, while it’s always exciting imagining all the ways a new lover will excite more than the last, what happens if moving on means the old lover leaving and taking with the bed, most of the furniture and the dog? Acquiring Antetokounmpo would either mean trading KAT straight-up for him — something the Bucks will never do — or multiple players. When you only go about as deep as CBS News, that’s a no-no.
Say adding Giannis “only” costs KAT and Bridges from the current rotation, and we’ll throw in Kyle Kuzma headed this way, too (whether you think that’s a plus or minus is up to you). That’d leave the Knicks with:
C – Mitch, Hukporti
PF – Giannis, Yabusele
SF – OG, Hart, Kuzma, Diawara, McCullar
SG – Deuce, Clarkson, Shamet, Dadiet
PG – Brunson, Kolek
Helluva starting five, eh? But start ranking the subs and it gets to be thin pickings fast. How many those subs you trust with 15-20 minutes a game come playoff time? That roster isn’t any closer to a ‘chip than the current one; the Knicks would have simply made another O. Henry trade, acquiring something precious at the cost of something equally precious, leaving them no better and less flexible (see: Anthony, Carmelo trade)
Two, we keep hearing how Giannis could mitigate a lotta difficulty for the Knicks by simply making it clear to the Bucks Gotham is the only place he’ll go. But — and I can say this from personal, shamed experience — it can be really difficult to extract yourself from a doomed relationship that you know isn’t sparking joy anymore. One of the most irritating things about Antetokounmpo in recent years has been his back-and-forth between “My righteous tzadik soul could never sully the Creator’s plan by asking for a trade” and “It’s medically critical that I am always competing for a title or else my blood cells will burst.”
What are the odds he pushes for a midseason deal to New York? If it required Milwaukee accepting what was obviously not the best offer possible, how will their fans react? I don’t think the Bucks want to be the first team to make a Luka-level trade since Luka and be explaining to their fans that the priority was doing right by Antetokounmpo while dooming the paying customers to a half-decade of long, cold Wisconsin winters.
Push a deal to the offseason and the Knicks could add a few extra first-round picks that aren’t currently trade-eligible. Push it to the offseason and a lotta teams can improve their offer, most to levels the Knicks just can’t reach. Unless the Bucks are interested in a post-Giannis future of winning 40ish games a year and drafting in the mid- to late teens.
A third reason I don’t want Antetokounmpo is where he differs 100% from Durant six years ago. KD is 7-feet tall and plays like his whole nine months in the womb God was whispering shooting tips to him. Even if Durant lost a step after his Achilles injury, he’s so tall, so long and so skilled that he could probably continue to dominate, even if he had to make adjustments due to injury.
You know when you like someone and you meet their parent of the same sex? And you check that parent out, wondering “Is that what my lover gonna look like in 20-30 years?” Someone with KD’s game is still holding it down in their late 50s, their 60s; the genes are immaculate. If Antetokounmpo loses a step due to injury/age, he could drop more than a just a little. He’s big and strong and athletic as all hell and can’t shoot a lick. Lose enough of them three formers and the latter could end up in tatters.
And four, finally: why would a man who gripes about being booed in Milwaukee be someone we trust with the pressure in New York? Antetokounmpo is the greatest player in Bucks history, and I’d guess the most popular. With allllll of the capital he’s built in a city not known for being hard on its athletes, his team was still booed (rightfully) for trailing by 31 at the half recently. And Antetokounmpo booed them back! If he comes to Madison Square Garden, the spotlight is on mostly on him, in front of fans he’s done nothing for besides costing a king’s ransom to acquire, and he’ll be expected to accomplish something no one from Bob McAdoo to Brunson ever has. No pressure.
If you want Antetokounmpo on the Knicks, pray it waits till the summer. The Knicks made a blockbuster deal last season right as training camp opened. Three days after their season ended, they stunningly fired their coach. There’s been a decent amount of turmoil and turnover at the highest levels of this team in, like, 15 months. Trading for Giannis midseason, whose game is 180-degrees different from KAT’s in every way, would force a team with less depth to completely alter their playing style on both ends more than halfway through the season. Please.
Also, a defense of Towns, who sometimes seems like he was brought in to be the perfect patsy to scapegoat outta town — KAT was a big reason the Knicks just made their first conference finals since 2000. This is no “Randle’s never come through in the postseason!” deal (another sophism I fought against); the Knicks don’t beat Detroit and Boston without KAT’s efforts. He’s still played fewer games as a Knick than Langston Galloway, Travis Knight and Michael Sweetney. Can we give an experiment that was entirely successful a year ago more than 50 games under a new coach before we blow it to hell? And that’s what it’d be: blowing things up.
What do you think? Do you want Giannis now? In the summer? ASAP? Never? Gab away in the comments, hon. Just be sure not to boo him, even in writing. Word is the man doesn’t like that.
