I think after the dust has settled on the Kristaps Porzingis trade, you begin to see the light. After all, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just that the New York Knicks traded the best player and potential franchise cornerstone piece that they’ve drafted in decades.
Never mind the fact that they now possess 7 first round picks in the next 5 years. Never mind the fact that they probably are coming off the best overall draft they’ve had in a long time, collecting three potential players who all look like they belong as part of their future. Never mind that they should have been coupling Porzingis with a potential top-3 pick and their exciting core from this year. There was every reason to believe that a playoff berth should’ve been part of their dreams for next year. They still could be.
It just stings, it hurts and there’s no other way to put it. As a sports fan you have dreams of grandeur for your teams. In those dreams, you want to see them win, obviously that comes first and foremost, but there is a special allure to having a home grown player, one who leads that team to the promised land, and has only played for your team. The feeling of seeing that player, who came up in your system and succeed, is something that still is blatantly lacking in my years of watching the New York Knicks.
I’m sure there are plenty of examples of successful home grown players but someone who comes to mind is Eli Manning. A guy who struggled early on but improved and has played his entire career to date with only the Giants. He stuck with the team and eventually went on to win two Super Bowls. To this day, he’s true blue all the way in my book.
Those are the aspirations that I personally had for Kristaps Porzingis with the Knicks. So even now, it still invoked a little anger. To think the guy, who was supposed to be OUR homegrown guy and OUR player who brought us back to relevancy, had no more of an intention of doing so.
Really what it comes down to is that if he did not want to be a part of this future for the New York Knicks then he should indeed be gone.
There is some justifications to this trade. He hasn’t played a full season of NBA basketball just yet and he’s coming off an ACL surgery. We still don’t really know what kind of player he is and how durable he will be in the long term. But more importantly, there is this. You cannot force anybody to play anywhere, and I truly do wish him the best. I really hope the New York Knicks do succeed without him. They may have just set themselves up to do so.
In the aftermath I can see that the future still may be bright for them, pending they make the right moves of course.
They’re putting a lot of pressure on themselves to make valid long-term signings in this upcoming free agency period. It’s a bet that could come out in their favor but it’s quite a gamble for a team with the luck that the New York Knicks have had in recent times. I don’t feel comfortable with it to be honest. I think the best chance for them resides in where they end up picking in the draft.
One thing that would go a long way to helping them rebuild would be the number one overall pick that could land them the highly touted Zion Williamson. If he’s playing in” orange and blue” next season, that could go a long way to helping us forget all about Porzingis.
I’ve always thought they’re going to need the next Lebron for their franchise to truly get turned around. They’ve just been mired in losing too long for anybody else to pull them out of it.