Knicks could surprisingly acquire $215.2 million Bulls star in blockbuster deal | Sporting News

The New York Knicks are a disappointing 4-5 to start the season, and their offense has been awfully predictable.

The problem isn’t Jalen Brunson or new acquisition Karl-Anthony Towns; both have produced.

Rather, New York’s pair of Villanova wings — Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges — might not provide enough offense for a roster relying on them to score.

Bridges has had some head-scratching offensive performances to start his career as a Knick, most recently an 8-point outing in Sunday’s loss to the Indiana Pacers, in which Bridges was 0-for-6 from three.

Bridges isn’t a reliable scorer every night, but New York needs him to be and gave up a bounty of first-round picks to acquire him.

The Knicks’ offense lacks dynamism beyond the Brunson-KAT two-man game. No one outside of Brunson and bench scorer Deuce McBride is capable of creating their own shot.

New York should make a move to improve their offensive versatility, or else they’ll be far too one-dimensional to make a splash in the playoffs.

Chicago Bulls combo guard Coby White would be a great fit on the Knicks, but what if New York did something surprising and went after White’s teammate in Chicago, Zach LaVine?

New York could acquire LaVine by shipping Bridges and Hart off to Chicago with another minimum contract attached.

Chicago would gladly take on Bridges’ two remaining years of $48.2 million total to get off of LaVine’s $138 million over three years remaining, and while Hart is locked up until 2027-28, he’s on an affordable contract (around $20 million per year) for someone that can start for the Bulls and be a reliable piece of their rebuild.

The Bulls could also ship Hart off to another contender at any point if they don’t want to keep him around for $20 million per season.

The Knicks lose a ton of defense in this trade — especially given LaVine’s abilities on that end — but a Brunson-LaVine-Anunoby-KAT core is perhaps more of a balanced basketball team than the current Knicks.

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