Given how quickly things in the NBA change, it’s almost impossible to predict what may happen, but we can at least try to predict a few outcomes.
After a disappointing 2021-22 NBA season, New York has many, many questions to answer as this offseason may be the most crucial in recent memory to the future of the Knicks. Given the level of young talent and draft capital that New York has accumulated, this summer is shaping up to be a wild one.
From pending free agents and coaching decisions to potential trades and the draft, we are going to see a lot of movement from The Big Apple, but here are the five biggest expectations for the Knicks for the upcoming summer.
One of the biggest problems the Knicks faced in 2021-22 was struggling to utilize the talent of everyone on the roster and putting them in a position to be at their best. That simply has to change.
While playing players out of position certainly contributed, there seemed to be no coherent game plan on a nightly basis, and it wasn’t until late in the season when the Knicks played Immanuel Quickley that things started to change.
New York also has plenty of young, athletic wings, and the quicker the team can fill out their roster and put units together, the better this squad will be come opening night.
We’ve seen over the past few seasons that the Knicks have put together one unit that works incredibly well together, full of pace and chemistry, but unfortunately, that has never been the case up and down the entire roster.
A lot of this will come when the Knicks can sort out the Julius Randle issue, whether that’s getting him to buy in or moving on from him, but with Quickley, RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin, Cam Reddish, Quentin Grimes, and other young stars, the time to make a playoff push is now. This step is crucial in New York being able to make that happen.
New York Knicks </a>fans are busy creating mock drafts, trade scenarios, and sorting out the ideal free agents for this team.</p>
<p>Given how quickly things in the NBA change, it’s almost impossible to predict what may happen, but we can at least try to predict a few outcomes.</p>
<p>After a disappointing 2021-22 NBA season, New York has many, many questions to answer as this offseason may be the most crucial in recent memory to the future of the Knicks. Given the level of young talent and draft capital that New York has accumulated, this summer is shaping up to be a wild one.</p>
<p>From pending free agents and coaching decisions to potential trades and the draft, we are going to see a lot of movement from The Big Apple, but here are the five biggest expectations for the Knicks for the upcoming summer.</p>
<h2>5 things to expect from the New York Knicks in the 2022 offseason</h2>
<h3>5. Finding a way to fill out this roster and define team roles for 2022-23</h3>
<p>One of the biggest problems the Knicks faced in 2021-22 was struggling to utilize the talent of everyone on the roster and putting them in a position to be at their best. That simply has to change.</p>
<p>While playing players out of position certainly contributed, there seemed to be no coherent game plan on a nightly basis, and it wasn’t until late in the season when the Knicks played Immanuel Quickley that things started to change.</p>
<p>New York also has plenty of young, athletic wings, and the quicker the team can fill out their roster and put units together, the better this squad will be come opening night.</p>
<p>We’ve seen over the past few seasons that the Knicks have put together one unit that works incredibly well together, full of pace and chemistry, but unfortunately, that has never been the case up and down the entire roster.</p>
<p>A lot of this will come when the Knicks can sort out the Julius Randle issue, whether that’s getting him to buy in or moving on from him, but with Quickley, RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin, Cam Reddish, Quentin Grimes, and other young stars, the time to make a playoff push is now. This step is crucial in New York being able to make that happen.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> A way to create cap space </a>
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<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-127765" src=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2133,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fdailyknicks.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2022%2F05%2F1355004607.jpeg" alt="New York Knicks, Nerlens Noel" width="3200" height="2133" srcset="https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2022/05/1355004607.jpeg 3200w, https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2022/05/1355004607-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Nerlens Noel, New York Knicks. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)</p>
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<h3>4. The Knicks need to unload some bad contracts</h3>
<p>After a shocking breakout year in 2020-21, the Knicks made some great decisions, namely finding Grimes and Deuce McBride in the draft, as well as trading for Reddish during the season.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, with the good comes the bad, and that bad included giving some veterans contracts that simply didn’t make sense for the team at the time, and still make very little sense for the future of the team.</p>
<p>Fans should be able to live <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2943545-evan-fournier-knicks-reportedly-agree-to-4-year-78m-contract-in-free-agency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">with the Evan Fournier contract</a>, as he was consistent for the majority of the season, and broke the Knicks’ record for most 3-pointers in a season, but the contracts handed to Nerlens Noel and Alec Burks were almost ridiculous.</p>
<p>Burks did contribute to the team this past season, although it was in a role, that through no fault of his own infuriated fans, but given his limitations and previous health issues, there’s no way that Noel should have been brought back on a multi-year contract.</p>
<p>It won’t be easy to get out from some of these, but with the draft capital for the next few years that Leon Rose has at his disposal, he needs to make some moves to get away from these players, especially when you consider the playing time that a healthy Noel and Burks will take away from Jericho Sims and some of the Knicks’ young wings.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> A 20-year dilemma </a>
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the Knicks need to confidently find their guy and hand them the keys to the franchise</a>.</p>
<p>Many fans will look at Quickley to fill that void, as he did so admirably as a spark at the end of the season, especially paired with the athleticism this team has, but if not IQ, then who?</p>
<p>Some names out there include Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, upcoming free agent Jalen Brunson, and Collin Sexton among many others, but whoever the Knicks go with, they need to believe that this player can be their guy.</p>
<p>This may come via trade or free agency, but if New York doesn’t want to waste all of the great work it’s done adding talent to this team over the past two years, then this is the summer to strike, because if they don’t, we may all have <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"https://dailyknicks.com/2022/03/30/new-york-knicks-trading-alec-burks-offseason-mistake/">to sit through another 82 games of Burks at the point guard spot</a>.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> To re-sign or not? </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-127767" src=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2133,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fdailyknicks.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2022%2F05%2F1238812359.jpeg" alt="New York Knicks, Mitchell Robinson" width="3200" height="2133" srcset="https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2022/05/1238812359.jpeg 3200w, https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2022/05/1238812359-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Mitchell Robinson, New York Knicks. (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)</p>
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<h3>2. A hard pursuit of pending free agent Mitchell Robinson</h3>
<p>Despite his limitations as a scorer, and as an offensive player in general, Mitchell Robinson is beloved by Knicks fans when healthy, and he has seemingly impressed the front office.</p>
<p>With so few options available in free agency and some trade targets that may not be available, New York should look to bring Robinson back, because <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/13/knicks-cant-afford-lose-mitchell-robinson-free-agency-offseason/">if that doesn’t happen there’s going to be a big void at center for this team going forward</a>.</p>
<p>There are trade targets out there, such as Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns, but it seems as if the Knicks don’t want to send away all their young talent, as they have done in the past when dealing for Carmelo Anthony, so Robinson is seemingly the best choice.</p>
<p>Myles Turner is also a great option for New York and one the team’s been rumored to be interested in for the past few seasons.</p>
<p>While that would be a good trade, the Knicks would arguably like to pair him with Robinson, so with all he brings to the table, expect to see New York do all it can to bring No. 23 back to The Big Apple during the offseason.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> A possible blockbuster move </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-127768" src=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2129,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fdailyknicks.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2022%2F05%2F1239775904.jpeg" alt="New York Knicks, Utah Jazz, Donovan Mitchell" width="3200" height="2129" srcset="https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2022/05/1239775904.jpeg 3200w, https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2022/05/1239775904-768x511.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images) – New York Knicks</p>
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<h3>1. Expect the Knicks to swing a big-time trade</h3>
<p>Ever since Rose <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/05/20/5-things-expect-knicks-2022-offseason/"https://www.nba.com/knicks/front-office-news/leon-rose-named-president-new-york-knicks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">took over the franchise</a> in 2020, he’s been building up trade assets, whether it be the young studs or future draft picks, and while New York could potentially wait another year for a monster trade, such as bringing Zion Williamson to the Mecca, we will at least see one big-time trade this offseason.</p><div class="widget fs_ads"> <div class="fs_ad_widget-ad" style="margin:0 auto; width: 300px;"> <div class="fs-ll-ad" data-ad-type="minutemedia_slideshow_inline_300x250__desktop__tablet" data-vendor="minutemedia">
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<p>The obvious choice here is trading away Randle, along with some expiring contracts and draft picks to find someone that pairs well with Barrett, Quickley, Toppin, and the rest of the young group, but this front office has surprised before.</p>
<p>If teams can see the potential of these young players, and the front office believes in Randle, a move to pair Randle and Barrett with a great player could be an option, but it’s hard to say which direction they will move in.</p>
<p>Either way, it shouldn’t shock any Knicks fan this offseason if the team doesn’t make a pick in this draft, or any of the upcoming ones due to sending them away, but if that does happen, rest assured, it’s going to be much more thought out than the trade that sent the future away for Anthony 10 years ago.</p>
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