Will the Knicks make a trade this season? Karl-Anthony Towns at the 4?: Mailbag

The New York Knicks have shown flashes of being a really good basketball team. At the same time, they have looked like a team that has a long way to go to reach the heights they have set for themselves and the expectations from the outside.

The good thing is that the season is still very young, and New York hasn’t been whole this entire time. Getting injured rotation players such as Precious Achiuwa and Mitchell Robinson back would surely help improve the Knicks’ struggling defense. Offensively, the team has one of the most efficient offenses, per NBA.com, but the Knicks need to continue to increase their 3-point attempts and do a better job of getting more shots near the rim, which, in turn, will help prop up their low free-throw attempts.

I’m sure many Knicks fans feel like the world is falling — or close to it. This was the most-anticipated season in recent franchise history. The start, I’m sure, has done nothing but bring back some bad memories. However, this team can be really good with more time.

To talk about what’s going on, I decided to answer some fan questions from both Twitter and Bluesky. Let’s get into them.

(Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length.)

Do you think the Knicks will make a trade at any point this season? Any predictions? — @clxmps27

It’s not even Thanksgiving and we’re already doing trade talk?!

In all seriousness, it’s too hard to say right now, and I hate being the cop-out answer guy. If this is who the Knicks are until the deadline — a mediocre-to-good team with obvious flaws — then, yeah, I could see something happening. The front office has to feel pressure, and being anything other than a top-three team in the Eastern Conference with all of the moves that they’ve made over the last year would be disappointing.

However, when you really dive into it, given the financial restraints on the roster, the investments in certain players and, if we’re being honest, the relationships, there aren’t many moves to make. Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby aren’t going anywhere. As for Mikal Bridges, even if his weird season continues, the organization gave up way too much to get him and move on within a year. I can’t see Josh Hart being moved, either. The best teams have players like Hart.

The only other players on the roster I could see being of interest to rival teams are Miles McBride (who I don’t see being moved because he’s a good player and has such a team-friendly contract that the team couldn’t even get anything significant back if he’s traded alone), Robinson (who likely won’t be ready until January) and Achiuwa (who is still injured and can’t be traded until Dec. 15).

Robinson and Achiuwa feel like the most likely trade candidates. However, this team is struggling defensively and Robinson is by far the best interior defender (more on this in a second) on the roster and Achiuwa might be next.

It still feels more likely that the Knicks are going to roll with what they have this season, although a Robinson trade wouldn’t surprise me. Yet, if this team just continues to trade wins and losses for the next two months, it’s hard to envision a world where they don’t do something.

Are there indications, when the team is fully healthy, that they will have KAT play the four with Mitch or Precious at the five? — @SG212MSG

It’s not something Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has specifically talked about, but I think the fact Minnesota felt the need to get Rudy Gobert to play alongside Towns in Minnesota is indication enough that it’ll be used in some capacity, if not as a default.

Has Towns been great defensively playing center in New York so far? No. Is he the only reason the team has struggled on that end? No. The point-of-attack defense has been as big of an issue as Towns’ limitations inside. And given the expectations of Bridges and Towns on defense, I’d say the former’s performance to date is more concerning.

On offense, Towns is best as a five. Him against 90 percent of opposing centers is almost unfair. On defense, though, I’m not sure where he fits best. The Knicks would be better served with a healthy Robinson playing the five, but is Towns able to guard quicker, more agile fours night in and night out? That’s the question.

Assuming Robinson is back to himself when he’s cleared to play, I’m sure Thibodeau will try it. It doesn’t mean it’ll work, but it would be surprising if he didn’t give it a shot given the success the Timberwolves had as a team with a more traditional rim protector next to Towns. I’m not sure we’ll see it nearly as much when Achiuwa, who Thibodeau said still hasn’t been cleared for practice, returns. I could be wrong. It wasn’t something that was unleashed much in the preseason when both players were healthy. Given the team’s struggles on defense, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Thibodeau experiment and see if he has something there.

Any chance we get to see Kevin McCullar this year? — @dleftyburner

We could possibly see McCullar with the Westchester Knicks in the G League, but if the big-brother club needs him, something probably went wrong.

New York drafted McCullar knowing that he had a knee issue and likely wouldn’t be ready to play anytime soon. The rookie from Kansas has been with the main club and rehabbing since training camp. It’s my understanding that McCullar will be out several months.

I’m sure that the Knicks are in no rush with McCullar and would rather have him healthy as possible before putting him in any form of meaningful basketball game.

What do you think the rotation will look like when Precious returns? — @daugs2287.bsky.social

I’m going to go with the usual starters. After them, McBride, Payne, Achiuwa and Matt Ryan off the bench. It’s possible that Ryan gets nudged out if Thibodeau wants to play bigger and keep one of Bridges, Anunoby or Hart on the floor at all times. But if he’s going to play nine guys, I’m going with those nine.

Has Thibs indicated why he is reluctant to play Ariel Hukporti more? — @2low-tech.bsky.social

He hasn’t, and Thibodeau isn’t a coach who throws players under the bus or criticizes them publicly. I’m sure Hukporti knows what he needs to do in order to consistently take Jericho Sims’ minutes, but that feels like something Thibodeau will keep between him and the player. I have a guess as to why Thibodeau has regularly favored Sims to Hukporti at this point, but it’s just my opinion as someone who has been around many NBA coaches and covered the league for eight seasons.

When it comes to rookies specifically, I’ve learned that coaches don’t like when players mess up the team’s foundational principles. Hukporti has messed up a few times with one of the team’s basic defensive concepts. For example, Hukporti is supposed to ICE pick-and-rolls and hasn’t always in his limited minutes so far. For those unfamiliar with the “ICE” term, it’s a defensive concept designed to take away penetration to the middle of the floor. In short, you want to force the ballhandler toward the sideline. Hukporti has not done that occasionally, and that is a non-negotiable for the coach.

Hukporti has brought great energy when he plays. He runs the floor hard. He has a good knack for blocking shots. There have been a lot of good flashes. However, I’m sure that Thibodeau wants him, first and foremost, to make sure that he has the foundational stuff down.

Again, I’m not saying with 100 percent certainty that this is why Hukporti hasn’t been a regular-rotation fixture. It’s just an observation that I’ve made. Almost every coach I’ve covered, interacted with, etc., wants to be able to trust that a player knows the basics of what he’s supposed to do before throwing him into the fire.

(Photo of Karl-Anthony Towns rebounding the ball: Brian Babineau / NBAE via Getty Images)