For Knicks, adding big names could be a minus
Lakers forward LeBron James dribbles the ball during the second half of the team's NBA game against the Pelicans on Friday in Los Angeles. Credit: AP/Yannick Peterhans
The Knicks made their moves ahead of the trade deadline, the deal for OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa just ahead of New Year’s and the depth additions of Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic on Thursday morning. But there still are some fans and media voices crying for more — the clear-cut star to arrive as the next step.
LeBron James? Joel Embiid? Giannis Antetokounmpo? All worthy targets for sure.
But something else worth noting among the three — their names are surfacing because there is something wrong with their current teams. And maybe the Knicks should learn a lesson from history: that while stars may win in the league, they also can spoil a plan.
As the chatter grows that the Knicks could be a championship contender right now, the comparison some have for them is the 2004 Detroit Pistons. They did not have an all-time great in the rotation (although they have one Hall of Famer in Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups might follow him someday).
Still, the Knicks need only look across the river at the Nets, who had a comparable build in progress when they got stars in their eyes.
The Nets signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and then that wasn’t enough. They traded Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert and a boatload of draft picks and pick swaps to get James Harden, starting them down the hill toward Ben Simmons and the oblivion in which they now find themselves.
Allen and LeVert are key pieces for the surging Cavaliers. Durant and Irving forced their way out of Brooklyn. Even the coach who was heading it all up, Kenny Atkinson, was pushed aside.
You can point to injuries and maybe the toe of Durant and dream that an elusive title could have come to Brooklyn and made it worthwhile. But that’s a tough argument to make, looking at the wreckage left behind.
The Knicks have their star — something the league is waking up to now that Jalen Brunson has ascended into the MVP conversation — as well as a two-time All-NBA piece in Julius Randle and a roster filled with perfect-fit pieces that run at least 10 deep.
Would a star help them? There’s no doubt that any of those three names listed at the top could. But could it also cost the franchise, disrupting what is an ascendant trajectory?
Just ask the Nets.
Home again
For Taj Gibson, the opportunity to play in New York, not far from where he grew up in Brooklyn, has been a dream come true, and now it has become a recurring dream. He left, returned again this season, was waived, was signed to a 10-day contract and signed another 10-day deal Saturday.
Gibson has been the perfect plug-and-play piece for Tom Thibodeau, having played for him in Chicago, Minnesota and New York. With a relentless work ethic and a high basketball IQ, he arrives and immediately becomes a player whom Thibodeau can trust in the biggest situations. And now, at 38 years old, he is appreciating each of these opportunities — and the cheers from the Madison Square Garden crowd that greet his every appearance.
“It’s inspiring,” Gibson said. “Being a vet in this league, understanding that I’m not in my prime anymore, and I’m trying to do whatever I can do to help a team, and it feels good to see the crowd understand that. This is a basketball city, so just being Taj, man. Nothing’s going to change.
“It brings a tear to me because just understanding where I came from, understanding the strive, understanding how hard it really is to compete in this league at all times, to understanding that I’m really 38 years old and I get to still lace ’em up and get the respect from my counterparts, and the crowd in New York City showed me a great respect, so I take the good and bad all in one.”
Gibson can name on one hand the players who remain from his 2009 draft class — James Harden, Steph Curry, DeMar DeRozen and Jrue Holiday are the other first-rounders — and being part of that dwindling group is a special feeling. “Yeah, because at the end of the day, I was a late first-round pick,” he said. “I was a little older than everybody in my class. To still be sticking around, one of the few guys that’s still left from my class, and then get the respect I still get every game, every night tonight, every team, the coaching staff, I’m just appreciative. It means that I’ve made my bones early, and I’m just trying to continue to just strive and help the guys around me.”
“He’s a true professional,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “Whenever he gets the phone call, he shows up for work, ready to go. I was just talking to him the other day. I said it’s unbelievable, it’s like Year 15 or 16, I said I can just hope I’m in the position you’re in in Year 15 or 16, to one, be in shape and two, be able to play in a game like this against a team like that.”
Asked if Gibson gave him any advice, DiVincenzo said, “No, he just laughed it off.”
Roommate/teammate
Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart have a special relationship, from sharing a dorm room for a year in college to being teammates again with the Knicks and now starting up a podcast together — The Roommates Show.
While the podcast may reveal some secrets — although it’s hard to see one that embarrasses Hart enough to stop him — Brunson also provided one in an appearance on “The Tonight Show’’ on Thursday as he talked about his teammates and roommates.
In addition to rooming with Hart when he was a sophomore, Brunson roomed with Donte DiVincenzo as a freshman.
Host Jimmy Fallon asked Brunson if they were good roommates.
“Yes. From the point of — I love being clean and neat,” Brunson said. “Donte was the cleanest, neatest person. Josh was a great roommate. He had a lot of stuff. He had, when I say a lot, he was a hoarder. We’re in these apartment-style dorms, you can’t walk into Josh’s room. You had to climb to the desk, the dresser. Keeps everything. He had a big container, like a three-drawer container, all candy and snacks.”
“It’s true, I am a hoarder,” Hart said. “But I’m not messy. I just didn’t want to leave anything home because my brother would wear all my clothes.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.