The New York Knicks are a team with a long past, but a short history. Over 78 seasons, they’ve won more than 50 games just 13 times; their last championship was 52 years ago. Except for the romanticized years of the 70s and 90s, the footprint of most Knicks teams exists only so far as the energy required to keep their Basketball Reference pages humming.
Whereas the Celtics and Lakers are entrenched institutions of success, the Knicks are your neighborhood’s cursed storefront — the coffeehouse turned tapas joint, turned Chinese restaurant, turned vape shop, turned Bank of America, turned different vape shop. Now, though, New York has turned itself into a championship contender. By trading five first round picks for Mikal Bridges , the Knicks have cemented their place in the NBA’s upper crust.
Beyond the bromance between Bridges and his fellow Villanovans, the roster is undeniably loaded. In Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle, the team has a simpatico pair of All-NBA stars; with Bridges and OG Anunoby (provided he re-signs), they have the best defensive duo in the league. What’s more, Donte DiVencenzo, Josh Hart and Miles McBride head up a bench unit full of guys who could start, if not star, on lesser teams.
Outside of Boston, not many teams can go band for band with New York in terms of their sheer number of good players. In fact, even before adding Bridges, they weren't too far removed from the NBA’s best–at full strength, the Knicks were already good. When Randle.