The New York Knicks have won seven of their last eight games, remain in third place in the Eastern Conference, and look like one of the best teams in basketball.
Despite that reality, there are some analysts around the league who feel that the team can get even better with one move.
A trade for the best basketball player of the era – LeBron James.
“I’d go to Rich Paul and tell him I will waive my no-trade clause for one of two teams. It will either be to join Steph Curry in Golden State or go to New York with the Knicks,” Stephen A. Smith said on First Take this week. “Now, the Knicks would be more difficult because they traded away five first-round picks to get Mikal Bridges. I love Bridges, but damn, five first-round picks—but I’m not going to belabor that, they did what they did.
“Obviously, they have a bunch of assets and clearly, the Lakers are in need of them.”
In his 22nd season and at 40 years old, James is as strong a scorer and ball-handler as ever. The future Hall-of-Famer has averaged over 24 points per game this season, along with over nine assists and seven rebounds.
He’s been with the Lakers now for seven seasons, including a championship during the COVID-lockdown season of 2020.
For the Knicks to even think about a potential trade for one of the greatest players of all time would be a transformational move for the franchise arguably in history.
The difficult part, of course, is the fact that the Knicks have little draft picks, even less cap space, and fewer assets to entice the Lakers to make a move.
There’s also the real fact that Los Angeles just traded for Luka Doncic. They wouldn’t want to get one of the best young players in basketball and not pair him with one of the greatest ever at this stage of things.
Stephen A. isn’t necessarily, wrong though. With stars potentially on the move already, the trade deadline could be one for the record books this season.
And it’s time for the Knicks to capitalize.
