The New York Knicks are enjoying their best season since 2013. That was the last time they went into the NBA All-Star break with a winning record. In that season, they won the Atlantic Division and finished second in the Eastern Conference with 54 wins.
While this year’s team isn’t that dominant, they are still providing fans with some excitement and hope on the court. They are playing hard every night under first-year head coach Tom Thibodeau, led by All-Star Julius Randle.
Randle helps set the tone every night with his performance on both ends of the court. He has transformed his game and turned into a leader for the team, putting together a career-best season.
This is only the beginning for the Knicks, as for the first time in a long time, there looks to be a light at the end of the tunnel. They have young pieces in RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson, and Frank Ntilikina has burst onto the scene recently. New York has all of their future picks and two Dallas Mavericks first-round picks as well.
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The Knicks are in as good of a position as any team in the league to improve their roster, whether it comes via trade or in free agency. Brian Windhorst believes that a star will demand a trade to the Knicks within the next year, and now we have some insight as to who.
According to Jay Williams on ESPN, Devin Booker is the star that Windhorst was referring to.
“The name that Windy was talking about is Devin Booker. He’s talking about Devin Booker. When we you look at the ties that exist within the Knicks organization, you have a guy like Leon Rose that is running the team. Devin Booker was one of his top clients.”
This is pretty shocking as the Phoenix Suns are having an outstanding season. They went all in to get Booker help this offseason, acquiring Chris Paul from the Oklahoma City Thunder. It has resulted in a 24-11 record thus far, which is good enough for second place in the Western Conference.
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Why would Booker want to leave what seems like a great situation with the Suns? As Williams pointed out, there are plenty of things linking Booker to the regime in New York. Respect could be one reason.
Booker was once again overlooked for the All-Star game this year, making the team as an injury replacement for the second straight year. There isn’t a market bigger than New York to play in and Booker would start to get recognized by casual people more playing in the Big Apple.
Booker has three more seasons on his contract after this one. It is hard to imagine given the current state of the Suns that he would want to leave, but crazier things have happened in the NBA. Karl-Anthony Towns is someone that he has said he wants to play with. Could they both force their way to New York?
This is something Knicks fans have seen before. NBA insiders predict stars to go there, the organization fails to land them and then they are mocked. Until something concrete occurs, there will be some skepticism. But, it is nice to see the franchise seemingly turning a corner this season to relevancy.
