Many fans have likely forgotten, but the New York Knicks stand to gain in a big way from the Dallas Mavericks’ struggles since the NBA trade deadline.
The New York Knicks 2022-2023 campaign has brought their fanbase a lot of positivity. After a disappointing showing last season, the team has rebounded in a major way, thanks in no small part to the outstanding play of Julius Randle and free agent addition Jalen Brunson.
That has not been the case for the Dallas Mavericks. Their season has been very much the opposite. After reaching the Western Conference finals last year, the Mavericks have been inconsistent all season without the aforementioned Brunson, and have actually gotten worse since a blockbuster trade for superstar guard Kyrie Irving.
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Dallas’ trade for Irving was supposed to fill and improve upon the void left by Brunson after he took his talents to New York this summer. However, since the February deal, the team is 8-14 and has now lost eight of their last 11. They have even become a less effective offensive team despite adding one of the best scorers of the last decade.
New York Knicks record: 44-33
Unsurprisingly, they have quickly fallen down the NBA standings in that time and are now a game out of the NBA playoff picture heading into Thursday. Well, that is fantastic news for the New York Knicks. Many fans are well aware of the offseason connection between the two teams, but they likely have forgotten about their long-standing connections from 2019.
In that year, the Knicks began the early stages of their rebuild when they shipped off former first-round pick Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas in a deal that included two future first-round picks. One of those firsts will be used this year as NBA insider Brian Windhorst explained during a Thursday edition of ESPN morning show “Get Up.”
“By the way, the Knicks get [Dallas’] pick if everything stays the way it is right now. The Knicks get the 11th pick [in the 2023 NBA Draft]. The best possible pick. It’s a genuine disaster.”
– Brian Windhorst
Porzingis — the one-time New York Knicks unicorn — never formed a planned dynamic duo with superstar Luka Doncic and was traded from Dallas last season. For the first time in a long time, the Knicks are the team on the winning side of a bad trade.
That 11th overall pick and many of the Knicks’ other first-round assets could be used in a trade for an All-Star player this summer. It is worth mentioning that the pick is top-10 protected, so as long as the Mavericks finish no lower than where they are now the selection is headed to New York in June.