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Knicks active at NBA Draft: Moves, motivation and what might come next

Mar 11, 2022; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; New York Knicks guard Alec Burks (18) dribbles during the first half against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports
By Fred Katz
Jun 24, 2022

Leave it to the New York Knicks to create maximum drama without making a pick.

In one night, they pulled off three trades. Six first-rounders and four second-rounders passed through them. They dealt a former All-NBA player, and they came a little closer to creating significant cap space this summer

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The NBA Draft is done. Let’s break it all down.

The details

This got confusing quickly. The Knicks made three trades Thursday night.

In the end, this was the net outcome:

The Knicks acquired a Wizards 2023 protected first-round pick, a Pistons 2023 protected first-round pick and a Bucks 2025 protected first-round pick. The Knicks lost the No. 11 pick, four second-rounders and Kemba Walker.

Here’s how they got there:

In the first trade, they sent the rights to Ousmane Dieng, whom they drafted with the No. 11 pick, to the Thunder for three protected 2023 first-rounders, from the Nuggets, the Wizards and the Pistons. (I’ll detail the protections later.)

In the second trade, they flipped the 2023 Denver pick they got from Oklahoma City along with four future second-round picks (the details are still somewhat murky, but according to a source, the second-rounders included the Knicks’ 2023 and 2024 ones, as well as the Jazz’s in either 2023 or 2024 and one more) to the Hornets for the draft rights to Jalen Duren, whom Charlotte selected with the No. 13 pick.

In the third trade, they rerouted the rights to Duren to the Pistons along with Walker. The Pistons sent the Knicks the Bucks’ protected first-round pick in 2025. This trade won’t become official until July 6. Detroit will then reportedly negotiate a buyout with Walker.

These trades were a tornado, even for those who watched them zip by their faces. At one point, as I hastily texted people in an attempt to figure out which pieces were going where, I received a response from someone normally in the know. I was merely asking for details about the picks. What were the protections? Which ones were the Thunder sending? And which were the Knicks? And which were the Hornets? And which were the Pistons? In my mind, this person was standing in front of a window, diagramming the trade details on glass, Russell Crowe-style. Instead, he responded that he knew Duke center Mark Williams was going 15th to Charlotte “somehow” and then wrote, “idk tho lol.”

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It was a hectic night for everyone.

The motivation

Just like with any Carl Sagan lecture, the Knicks’ trades were all about space.

They’ve spent recent weeks canvassing the league, trying to gauge what it might take to unload some of their veterans. On Thursday, they capitalized.

They entered the night as a team people expected to go into free agency, which begins June 30, above the salary cap. Now, with Walker no longer on the team, they can create a little more than $16 million of room without even making another trade.

The goal, of course, seems to be to carve out enough space to make a significant play for Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson, who is unrestricted when free agency begins next week. Jettisoning Walker’s $9.2 million wasn’t the only salary relief the Knicks got Thursday. They also don’t have to pay the $4.5 million the 11th pick would have cost. If they waive Taj Gibson, whose 2022-23 salary is non-guaranteed, and renounce point guard Ryan Arcidiacono’s cap hold, they can open up $16.3 million in space. Brunson, however, would command a starting salary above $20 million, which means another trade could come if he’s willing to commit.

Candidates for the Knicks to deal include Alec Burks, who makes $10 million next season, and Nerlens Noel, who makes $9.2 million, though it would presumably be easier to find a new home for Burks, a 40 percent 3-point shooter and dependable wing defender.

Parting with just one of those guys without bringing any salary back could get the Knicks at least $25 million below the cap and able to make a competitive offer for Brunson.

But what about the picks?

The Knicks trading down or out of the first round altogether was always a possibility. Clearly, they weren’t enthralled with the options at No. 11, and the whole league has been talking for days about how aggressively they were attempting to open up cap room. Yes, they used the 11th pick to get off Walker, but it wasn’t a straight salary dump. They acquired three future first-rounders in the process. And there’s a realistic chance all three convey.

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The Pistons pick is protected until Gibson’s grandkids graduate college. It’s top-18 protected in 2023 and 2024, top-13 protected in 2025, top-11 protected in 2026 and top-nine protected in 2027. It turns into a second-rounder after that. Detroit is loaded with young talent now, especially after adding Duren and Jaden Ivey on Thursday. At some point in the next five years, the Pistons will make the playoffs, and the Knicks will get their pick.

The Wizards pick is lottery protected in 2023, top-12 protected in 2024, top-10 protected in 2025 and top-eight protected in 2026 before it turns into two second-rounders. There’s a greater chance than not that it ends up with the Knicks at some point.

The Bucks pick, meanwhile, is only top-four protected in 2025. The odds of Milwaukee collapsing to the bottom of the league during Giannis Antetokounmpo’s age-30 season are tiny.

The Knicks now have nine first-round picks over the next five drafts (they own the Mavericks’ 2023 one, too). Even after trading a quartet of second-rounders Thursday, they are still plus-four in that department.

There is an ever-so-slight chance they have four selections in next year’s much-anticipated first round: their own, the Dallas one, the Washington one and the Detroit one. Of course, the Wizards would have to sneak into the playoffs and the Pistons would have to make a massive leap for that to happen.

That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Knicks reroute at least one of these picks as soon as this summer. They need to open up more cap room if they want to chase Brunson and could slap one of the firsts onto Noel to send him off without bringing any salary back, though it might be easier to deal Burks.

There are people in the league who believe they’re also stockpiling picks to use in a trade for a star, though I’m somewhat skeptical the ones the Knicks acquired Thursday are needle-moving in a megadeal. First-round picks are great, but they don’t necessarily get you All-NBA talent when they’re all likely to be outside the lottery.

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The Knicks have chosen not to divulge their long-term plan explicitly. They did not hold a news conference following the draft, which is convention for other front offices around the league, and said they do not plan to hold one Friday. Team president Leon Rose has not spoken to reporters on the record since before the 2021-22 season began.

Change in the market

In the moments following the trade with the Thunder, there were people around the league who thought the Knicks might use the picks coming from Oklahoma City to persuade the Pistons to flip Ivey — the No. 5 selection Thursday night and, more relevantly, Leon Rose’s white whale — to New York. Various reports came out about the Knicks’ pursuit of Ivey. Of course, it did not work out; Ivey will remain a Piston. For what it’s worth, my informed opinion is that Detroit never came close to accepting any Ivey-related offer from the Knicks.

There is a silver lining, though. Ivey’s destination, even though it’s not New York, may actually help the Knicks.

The Pistons are now loaded in the backcourt with Ivey and 2021 No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham, who looks like a star in the making. But Detroit, armed with more cap space than any other team, had been a rumored Brunson team, as well. If the Pistons loved Brunson, they could have outbid the Knicks. Now, they have two 20-year-old guards who should fit well together. They could put their cap space to better use elsewhere, like if they pursue Deandre Ayton on the restricted free-agent market.

So, the Knicks can feel good knowing one contender for Brunson might not be such an intuitive destination anymore, though the possibility of the 25-year-old guard re-signing with the Mavericks still looms.

“Until he tells us that he doesn’t want to be here, we’re optimistic,” Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison told reporters at a post-draft news conference Thursday.

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The long view

The Knicks turned the No. 11 pick in what’s thought to be a weak draft into three future first-rounders and parted with an undesirable contract in the process. Yes, drafting a young stud is a better viewing experience than kicking cans down roads. The Knicks have kicked so many cans in the past year that their toes must be bleeding. And yes, maybe Dieng or Duren or someone else they could have drafted 11th will become a nine-time All-Star.

But the Knicks churned one first-rounder into three while shedding salary. That’s value … as long as they use their cap space responsibly, which they may not. Maybe they sign Brunson to too big of a contract. Or maybe he goes back to Dallas. We don’t know what’s next yet. Either way, it’s not necessarily the same move as when they sent the No. 19 pick to Charlotte last summer for a 2022 top-19 protected one, a swap with limited upside.

The Wizards, who will offer Bradley Beal a massive contract when he hits free agency next week, are candidates to make a big move this offseason. Beal has hinted that he will stay, but he wants them to win. They’re only a year removed from snatching the No. 8 seed. If they manage to creep into the playoffs in 2023, their pick now goes to the Knicks, which means New York would have three picks in a stacked draft.

Reasonable minds can argue the Knicks fared well Thursday night. The greatest argument against how they operated comes when you don’t focus only on what happened at the draft. It’s when you zoom out.

The Knicks pulled off these moves because they want to open up cap room this summer without sweeping away all of their draft picks. And they feel the need to open up cap room because they don’t have it right now. And they don’t have it right now because of the money they gave out last summer.

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They thought they were giving out tradeable contracts last offseason, the kinds they could piece together if they wanted to bring in a star. Instead, they can’t give them away. Yes, three first-rounders is dandy, but this all started because of regrettable signings.

Walker is on an expiring, $9 million salary, less than the midlevel exception, and it still took the No. 13 pick to deal him to Detroit. Teams haven’t been willing to take Noel without sweeteners, league sources have said, or Evan Fournier, who has two years and $37 million remaining on his deal. Many are wary of Julius Randle, whose four-year extension he signed last August and is worth at least $106 million, kicks in at the start of next season. Derrick Rose, meanwhile, has health questions and a $14.5 million 2022-23 salary, though I have no indication the Knicks are open to trading him.

None of the contracts they gave out last summer is an obvious positive.

Burks has about a net-neutral contract value, meaning he would neither bring back a significant asset on his own and it wouldn’t take attaching a significant asset to him to trade him, though it’s not clear yet how his end-of-season foot surgery, which The Athletic reported earlier this week might affect his value on the market. Maybe the Knicks have to attach a second-rounder now to move him into someone else’s space. The team expects him back by training camp, sources say, but medical problems never improve trade value.

Four months ago, the Knicks had an opportunity to open up space for this summer and passed on it, sources said. The team zeroed in on a three-way trade with the Lakers and Raptors that would have sent Burks, Noel and Cam Reddish out of town and would have brought back no long-term salary along with a draft pick, but the team chose not to do it. Had the Knicks done that deal, they would have entered the draft looking at about $25 million of room. They could have handled the Walker situation differently, or they could have traded him to free up even more space. Now, it may take trading additional draft picks to get $25 million below the cap.


Related reading

NBA Draft: Pick-by-pick analysis from Thursday night

Related listening

(Photo of Alec Burks: Petre Thomas / USA Today)

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Fred Katz

Fred Katz is a staff writer for The Athletic NBA covering the New York Knicks. Follow Fred on Twitter @FredKatz