Coming into the NBA offseason, it was abundantly clear that the New York Knicks needed to find a new point guard for the upcoming season. The Kemba Walker and Derrick Rose duo did not pan out last season as they combined to play in only 63 games.
That forced Tom Thibodeau to start Alec Burks, a natural wing player, as the point guard. His size was a positive for the switching defense that the Knicks ran, but offensively, it was sometimes a struggle. It led to some issues running the offense, as the team would stall out and be stagnant at times.
That is as big of a reason that the team needs an upgrade this offseason. They have been linked to Dallas Mavericks point guard Jalen Brunson, but that seemed like a long shot, at best, coming into the offseason.
However, according to Marc Stein on his Substack, momentum is building toward Brunson heading to the Big Apple. At this point in time, the Knicks are now expected to land him in free agency.
This is something that will be taken with a grain of salt. Too often the Knicks have been used as leverage for players to squeeze some extra money out of their original teams. But, as Stein shared, momentum was building after the Knicks made multiple trades during the 2022 NBA Draft.
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That night, New York traded Walker, the No. 11 pick and four future second-rounders in exchange for three future first-round picks. The biggest takeaway from that was the cap space that they cleared by moving Walker to the Detroit Pistons.
If they can trade Nerlens Noel or Alec Burks and then waive Taj Gibson, they will have just under $25 million in cap space to spend. A large chunk, if not all of that money, will be used to convince Brunson to join the team.
Brunson had a breakout 2021-22 season, performing at a high level whenever Luka Doncic wasn’t in the lineup. Even when Doncic returned, Brunson played at a high level. He also helped the team take a 2-1 series lead in their first-round series over the Utah Jazz with Doncic sidelined.
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With the Knicks, he would take over as the starting point guard and main ball handler, something he will never be able to do while sharing the backcourt with Doncic. His presence will help the team immensely late in games as well as a closer and someone that can get the offense organized in crunch time.
