Knicks' NBA Finals appearance shows tanking not necessary to build contender

There's prevailing wisdom in the NBA that the only way to turn your franchise around is through tanking and high draft picks. The New York Knicks are showing you can build a winning team without getting lucky with ping-pong balls.

The only key rotation players who the Knicks actually drafted are Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson, while the rest of the team came from trades and free agency. It's a lesson that being aggressive in the trade market can reap rewards more effectively than tanking can.

New York Knicks wheeled and dealt their way to NBA Finals

The Knicks were regular visitors to the draft lottery in the late 2010's. However, they were trying to win in all but the 2018-19 season, when the promise of Zion Williamson and a season-ending injury to Kristaps Porzingis (and subsequent trade) left them with a league-worst 17-65 record. They dropped to third in the draft and selected RJ Barrett, a perfectly fine player but not one you'd fuel up the tank for.

Barrett, a Toronto native, was the centerpiece of the trade that brought in OG Anunoby from the Toronto Raptors, along with Immanuel Quickley, the No. 25 pick in 2020. The Knicks actually traded out of the draft lottery in 2022 to add draft capital, which they used to trade for Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets and sent their own 2023 first-rounder to the Portland Trail Blazers to add Josh Hart.

New York Knicks' biggest advantage was organizational confidence

Generally, a big-market team like the Knicks or Los Angeles Lakers gets a leg up in obtaining free agents. That's not really how it went with the signings of Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson. Randle was not one of the top free agents in 2019. Brunson signed with the Knicks in 2022 after the team hired his father as an assistant coach and tampered enough that they were docked a draft pick.

But both players only became All-Stars after joining the Knicks. Randle improved enough to be the biggest piece going to the Minnesota Timberwolves when they traded for Karl-Anthony Towns, who was the No. 1 overall pick in 2015.

The biggest key was that team president Leon Rose and his team were allowed to make bold moves, like using six picks to add Bridges and recruiting three of Brunson's college teammates from Villanova. The old Knicks targeted the most famous player available, star-hunting instead of building a foundation. That's how the team ended up with an ill-fitting front court of Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler in 2011, a squad that went 7-14 in the playoffs.

Maybe it's because owner James Dolan was preoccupied with building The Sphere, a $2.3B arena in Las Vegas, rather than meddling with the team.  Now the team is in the middle of their best stretch in 30 years — and no tanking was required to get there.