Despite their current placement as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference with an impressive 40-23 record, many will still assume it to be a stretch that the New York Knicks are real title contenders in 2025.
The Knicks’ recent three-game losing streak and awful 0-7 record against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder this season has helped to draw the NBA world to this conclusion, but the team’s front office may figure that a massive personnel shake-up could put the franchise in position to raise the Larry O’Brien trophy once again by the conclusion of the 2026 NBA Playoffs.
In fact, recent trade proposals have indicated that New York should negotiate a deal this summer which would ship 2019 NBA champion and 2023 All-Defensive Team selection OG Anunoby to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package headlined by disgruntled rookie forward Dalton Knecht.
“The Knicks gave Anunoby $212 million last offseason before trading for Mikal Bridges,” Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz wrote Monday.
Moving Anunoby now frees up a lot of future money while making the top-heavy Knicks deeper overall.”
“A New York team featuring Jalen Brunson, Knecht, Bridges, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns with Hachimura, Finney-Smith, Mitchell Robinson and Miles McBride is better balanced overall and gives the team more shooting from the wing.”
The 27-year-old Anunoby is enjoying a successful season for New York, as he’s averaged 16.4 points and 4.7 rebounds to go along with a 55.5% effective field goal percentage. Although he’s been productive in 57 appearances with the Knicks in 2024-25, the team could figure that his $212 million contract does not quite match his statistical output.
As a result, Swartz suggests that the Knicks part with their two-way star in exchange for Los Angeles’ forwards Knecht, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith to revamp their seldom-used bench unit.
Taken by the Lakers with the No. 17 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Knecht was previously set to be traded by the team prior to the Feb. 6 trade deadline to the Charlotte Hornets before the deal famously fell through. If he were to be thrown into another trade this summer, he could view his next destination as the one where he could prove his detractors wrong.
By joining Knecht in this hypothetical deal, Hachimura and Finney-Smith could potentially boost the Knicks to status as title favorites for the 2025-26 campaign, as the introduction of the battle-tested role player duo to New York’s lineup would convince the team’s head coach Tom Thibodeau to let his revitalized reserve group have more of an impact on their contests.
By possibly implementing the trio into the Knicks’ nightly rotation, the team could plausibly take over the Eastern Conference due to the added depth behind superstars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns for years to come.
