Never forget the mission.
The
New York Knicks want to trade for a star. Not sign one. Not increase their chances of drafting one. They want to trade for one and then trade for another.
Make sure to assess the front office within that context.
It’s why the Knicks flipped the No. 19 pick for a future first-rounder on NBA Draft night in 2021. It’s why they exchanged No. 11 for three future firsts the following summer. It’s why they’ve signed veterans in the hopes of being competitive enough to make it onto a headliner’s vaunted list.
Knicks leadership is a 1990s teen angst band; they just want someone to want them. It’s why they’ve held onto all of their picks and why they’ve clutched onto their young players so tightly that they wouldn’t even spin them into Donovan Mitchell. Losing too many of them along with too many draft picks would mean not having enough left over to trade for a
second star — and, to paraphrase something a general manager once told me, the price of having one star is two stars.
During his few public-facing appearances with the team’s television network, Knicks president Leon Rose has discussed the organization’s long-term flexibility while alluding to that plan. Star packages consist of young talent and lots of picks. The Knicks have both, which must mean they’re in good shape.
But what happens when a team has flexibility within Plan A but opts against forming Plans B and C?
Well, then you might see reports like the one
The Athletic’s Shams Charania wrote Friday: The Knicks “have shown a willingness to discuss” a promising guard, Immanuel Quickley, in trades.
Quickley hasn’t shot well over the Knicks’ first 18 games. His efficiency has plummeted since his rookie season, but he’s vastly improved as a defender. He’s one of the squad’s best helpers and is handsy guarding dribblers. He pushes the pace and is
a loose-ball fiend. Quickley has trended unexpectedly since bursting onto the scene in 2020-21: from an instant-offense bucket-getter who didn’t give the Knicks much if he wasn’t scoring, to a do-the-little-things pest whose offense is too inconsistent.
Still, the Knicks are steadily better when he plays. And yet, he rests cleanly on the trade block.
After years of the front office white-knuckling its young guys, why is Quickley all of a sudden expendable? How did this happen?
It’s difficult to muse about the Knicks’ philosophies without circling back to the grand plan.
The Knicks waited long enough in their quest for a star that the young players they hoped could form the core of a big-time trade are about to lose what makes them the most attractive: their cheapness.
Whatever the specific reasons the Knicks have for listening to offers on Quickley, remember how moves of the past have fit into Plan A. The Knicks churned the 19th selection in 2021 into a future first-rounder because, at the time, they believed the hopes and dreams that draft picks represent would be more attractive in a trade for a star than the certainty of an actual human, which is what they would have had if they’d drafted at No. 19. According to sources around the league, the Knicks have targeted a future first-round pick in a return for Quickley, who is extension-eligible this upcoming summer.
And thus, it all starts to make sense.
Maybe a hypothetical Quickley trade won’t be for a draft pick. Maybe the Knicks deal him for something that helps them today. Maybe they include him in a bigger package. Or maybe they end up holding onto him for so long that he retires years from now with New York across his chest. Who knows how this ends?
Organizations talk trades with other teams all the time. It’s not worth evaluating them until they are official. But based on where Quickley is in his contract and based on what the Knicks are telling other teams they’d like back for him, this is as good a moment as any to check in on that long-term plan and how the 23-year-old guard fits into it.
Extension eligibility is a major milestone for young players. Quickley is cheap this season and the next one, but once he earns his market value (or at least can threaten that an organization has to pay it to him) anyone considering lusting after him in a trade will think about him differently. The same concept also surrounds Obi Toppin, who is extension eligible in summer 2023.
I swear to god I’m about done. This front office is garbage fake respectability, nepotism based, name chasing ass shyt, this shyt is a laundering scheme for CAA 
