You're Not Overreacting: The New York Knicks Had an Atrocious 2022 NBA Draft

For most of my adult life, the New York Knicks have had terrible NBA Drafts.

From drafting Jordan Hill in 2009 with the no. 8 pick when the team was clearly being built around David Lee and it made no sense to pick another big man who plays the same position—especially when DeMar DeRozan was drafted right behind Hill.

Then drafting Frank Ntilikina with the no. 8 pick in 2017 solely because Phil Jackson was the team president at the time and wanted a point guard to fit in his archaic Triangle Offense that only had success because it was being run by Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant instead of just drafting the most talented player available.

Last season, the Knicks finished 11th in the East and the draft lottery slotted them with the 11th pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Cool. We’ve seen plenty of All-Stars develop in this league outside of the Top 10 picks. It’s not the best position to be in but if you have a good scouting department, you can find a needle in a haystack.

A draft night that started with excitement over a multitude of possibilities ended with the team vomiting on themselves. Rumors about trading up to select dynamic point guard, Jaden Ivey. Rumors about potentially attaching that first-round pick to maybe Julius Randle and bringing back someone like Donovan Mitchell or Dejounte Murray. Or even Kyrie Irving for the Knicks fans out there that love messy bitches who live for drama.

None of that shit happened. The Knicks left with no players.

Sure, they drafted Trevor Keels in the 2nd round and that’s cool or whatever. But it’s borderline impossible to find a silver lining when the team that finished 11th last season walked away from the draft with only a 2nd rounder joining the team. They are essentially running last year’s team back but adding one kid who will sit on the bench all year.

To recap, the Knicks flipped their 2022 first-round draft pick for 3 future heavily protected first-round picks. They also attached Kemba Walker to the pick they gave away to free up cap space and erase a mistake they made last summer. Spending the 11th pick in the NBA draft to get rid of a dumb contract is terrible team building.

So not only did they walk away with no players. They lost a player for ‘cap space’. Cap space has literally never won a championship. No one has ever debated if Cap Space should win the Finals MVP.

But let’s talk about that cap space that’s soooo important to the Knicks. By trading away the pick and Kemba, New York opened around $18 million in cap space. It is no secret the Knicks are looking to sign Jalen Brunson when free agency begins.

There’s a report the Knicks are prepared to offer Brunson a 4-year $100 million deal. $25 million a year. That would make him the highest-paid player on the roster ahead of Julius Randle—a player that had a rough season last year but was an All-NBA player the season before. That one All-NBA selection is astronomically more All-NBA selections than the ZERO Jalen Brunson has.

Jalen Brunson had some huge playoff games a few weeks back including a 41-point night against the Utah Jazz. Dope.

But we cannot remove the crucial context of who he played next to. Luka Doncic is the most ball-dominant player in the NBA right now. He attracts the entire defense’s attention which allows guys like Jalen Brunson to get some easy buckets when Doncic is getting double and triple-teamed.

It is wild to make Brunson the highest-paid player on your team and ask him to run your offense when he’s quite literally never shown he’s capable of such a task.

How the hell do we know what Brunson looks like when he’s not playing next to one of the greatest basketball players of this generation? He could very easily just stand in the corner like Kemba Walker did last season while watching RJ Barrett drain the shot clock.

Now, if you’re an optimistic Knicks fan or just an annoying contrarian, you can convince yourself that Brunson is only one piece of a bigger puzzle. The Knicks can flip those future first-round picks and some contracts to bring in someone like Donovan Mitchell to team up with Brunson.

Lol.

Jalen Brunson is 6-foot-1. Donovan Mitchell is 6-foot-1. The Knicks are preparing to have the smallest backcourt in the NBA and a historically horrific perimeter defense. Do you know how Brunson scored 41 points? Donovan Mitchell letting Brunson blow past him over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Jrue Holiday. Zach LaVine. James Harden. Jimmy Butler. The Eastern Conference is led by bigger, stronger guards and the Knicks are planning on combating that with the tiniest guys they can find.

The biggest problem with the Knicks is their total lack of self-awareness. They aren’t a playoff team. They have no chance to compete with Milwaukee or Miami or Boston. They aren’t ‘one move away’ from anything.

Look at the team they traded with on draft night. The Detroit Pistons drafted Cade Cunningham last summer—who will be a star in this league—and every decision after that has been to put together a squad of young players to grow and develop around him.

Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey are already a far more dynamic backcourt than Alec Burks and Evan Fournier were last season. Detroit brought in Marvin Bagley—a former no. 2 draft pick who failed in Sacramento but still has plenty of upside—and he instantly looked better playing alongside Cade.

When the time is right, the Pistons will pull the trigger and bring in some vets to bolster the roster but they are in no rush to spend money on players that will have them in the 11th seed like the Knicks.

Meanwhile, the Knicks refuse to take a step back and just build and develop around guys like RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin. You need these young kids to grow while they’re on cheaper rookie deals so that you can AVOID throwing $25 million a year at Jalen Brunson.

Unfortunately, none of this matters because when the season starts, Tom Thibodeau will still be the head coach. Thibs has proven time and time again that it doesn’t matter who the Knicks draft, he will play Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson 48 minutes a night because those are his ‘guys’ back from Chicago when he had all of his success winning zero championships.

Leon Rose and Tom Thibodeau are going to be fired in the next 2 seasons and the rebuild will restart once again with a new team president who won’t fully commit to building through the draft and another head coach who refuses to play young players. As is tradition. And us Knicks fans will get our hopes up again. Please respect and understand my addiction.