DO SOMETHING!
After Indiana’s deal for Siakam, Knicks have to take action if they want to keep pace
Oh my. The Knicks have to do something. But they can’t just do anything, because the wrong move could set the Knicks back for years to come. Tyrese Haliburton had already reinvigorated an Indiana Pacers franchise whose new up-tempo, run-andgun style of play put them in the same category as the Knicks.
New York and Indiana are clustered among the Eastern Conference playoff hopefuls not named the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks or Philadelphia 76ers, who have run away with the conference’s top-three seeds.
Those same Pacers, however, did what the Knicks have yet to do. They traded for a star, landing Toronto’s Pascal Siakam in exchange for three draft picks and utility guard Bruce Brown.
Make no mistake: Siakam is a star by the definition of the word. He, like Julius
Randle, is a two-time All-Star and has made two All-NBA teams in his career. This is his fifth straight season averaging 21 or more points per game. He is a post-up playmaker (five assists per game), can take his man off the dribble, space the floor from behind the arc and guard all five positions on the basketball court.
Siakam was also a member of the 2019 Toronto Raptors team that won it all on Kawhi Leonard’s shoulders (and Kevin Durant’s Achilles).
On this day, Haliburton is the happiest camper in all of basketball.
His Pacers got exponentially better and are expected to re-sign Siakam to an extension this offseason.
Indiana is also in position to make a deal for another star using one of Buddy Hield ($19.3 million) or Myles Turner’s ($20.8 million) contracts, a number of their young impact players (Andrew Nembhard, Jalen Smith, Aaron Nesmith, Jarace Walker,
Bennedict Mathurin or Ben Sheppard), and their two remaining tradable first-round picks in 2028 and 2030.
They are players to do what the Knicks have opted against so far: use their assets to form a super team. They have the makings of one in Indiana.
AS OF THE TRADE, HERE IS HOW THE EASTERN CONFERENCE STANDINGS SHAKE OUT:
4 – Cleveland
5 – Miami
6 – Indiana
7 – New York
8 – Orlando
Each of these teams are within two games of one another.
The Knicks are tied one apiece in their season series against the Cavaliers, are up 1-0 against the Heat, trail the Pacers 0-1, and have lost twice to the Magic, including Monday’s disappointing loss in a game Jalen Brunson missed, as did four key Orlando players.
The Siakam trade is not good news for the Knicks.
They’ve already made one trade, and it worked in New York’s favor. Moving RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for OG Anunoby redefined their defense and brought more balance on offense.
Despite their struggles with Brunson out, the Knicks are 6-2 since the Anunoby deal. They are unquestionably a better team now than they were before.
The roster, however, remains flawed, and while Anunoby’s impact makes Barrett an afterthought, there has been no substitute for Quickley’s firepower off the bench.
Miles McBride has played well, but Quentin Grimes has five single-digit scoring games since the Quickley deal entering Wednesday’s matchup against the Houston Rockets.
Josh Hart is also averaging just six points on 27 percent shooting from deep since the deal. The Knick bench is averaging just 26.4 points since the Anunoby trade, the third-fewest in the span.
The Knicks and Pacers entered Wednesday with an identical 23-17 record. The
Pacers now have a second All-Star. Brunson is expected to make his first All-Star team this season, which would give the Knicks two including Randle, who has earned the nod twice.
All-Star duos are becoming common in the East. Teams need three to vault up the standings — or at least one world-beater on the roster.
l Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are perennial All-Stars and reigning conference champions who eliminated the Knicks last season with a depleted roster and a one-legged Butler (though Randle suffered an ankle injury that ultimately needed surgery).
l The Cavaliers have three All-Stars in Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and one-time All-Star Jarrett Allen. They also improved their roster over the summer by acquiring Max Strus and Georges Niang, but the Knicks shocked them with the firstround upset in the playoffs last season.
l The Pacers’ acquisition of Siakam makes them even scarier considering Haliburton’s very nature is to play to his teammates’ strengths.
l Jamahl Mosley should be a Coach of the Year candidate with the job he’s done in Orlando. Paolo Banchero is expected to make his first All-Star Game, and Franz Wagner is having a fringe All-Star level season, too.
Add it all up, and you get a ton of competition — not just for Brunson and Randle to both make the All-Star Game, but for the Knicks to secure a top-six seed.
The Knicks could have a pair of AllStars for the first time since Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler made it together in 2013 and just the second time since Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell made it in 2001.
Whether or not that happens will largely depend on where the Knicks are in the standings when the coach-voted All-Star reserves are announced on Feb. 2.
The All-Star Game, of course, is secondary to where the Knicks finish at the end of the season.
Because the Knicks are currently seventh in the East, they are in early danger of falling into the Play-In Tournament.
This is the second season the NBA will have such a tournament between seeds Nos. 7-10 at the conclusion of the regular season. It is sudden death for seeds 9 and 10, while the winner between seeds 7 and 8 will secure the No. 7 seed to advance to the playoffs.
The winner of the No. 9 vs No. 10 seed game then faces the loser of the No. 7 vs No. 8 seed game. The winner of that game advances to the playoffs as the eighth seed, while the loser goes to Cancun.
The Knicks own a 7-17 record against teams currently boasting a winning record and are 16-0 against teams that are below-.500.
That makes them exactly what their record and standing might indicate: above average, not a championship contender, a team that needs some luck to repeat last season’s success as a second-round playoff team.
Or the Knicks could force the issue and trade for a player that makes them better. The Knicks own each of their own firstround picks through 2031, as well as four additional first-round picks from other teams.
They have been linked to several players available on the trade market, including Atlanta’s Dejounte Murray, Portland’s Malcolm Brogdon, Detroit’s Bojan Bogdanovic and Charlotte’s Terry Rozier.
These trades, however, will cost draft assets and Evan Fournier’s $19 million expiring contract, which the Knicks would need to use later if they’re going to add a superstar to their current core.
The wrong trade could set the Knicks back. No trade at all could cost New York another valuable season.
What they do, or don’t do, next will dictate just how far this team can go, this season and beyond.
What’s clear is the Eastern Conference is wide open after Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. And with the Siakam trade, it’s also clear that if the Knicks aren’t going to make a move to chase after the fourth seed, someone else will do it fast.