Knicks Hope Familiarity is Secret Ingredient

You’ve heard of the ‘Nova Knicks. Thanks to a reported Saturday transaction and popular news gatherer “New York Basketball” on X, the world is about to get to know the “PhoeKnicks.”

Putting Tatooine’s twin to shame, the Knicks now have four former Phoenix Suns on their active roster packed to the brim with 15 contracts. Adding Landry Shamet (first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN) reunites him with Keita Bates-Diop, Mikal Bridges, and Cameron Payne, all of whom dunked in the desert.

Time will tell exactly who fits where: Tom Thibodeau has become prosperously notorious for shortening his metropolitan rotations and the Knicks’ tendencies to be wheeling and dealing (only five players remain from the 2022-23 team) strongly imply that the formerly fiery four may not be fully together by the time the 2024 postseason rolls around.

But who needs such assurances when you’ve got … family?

Sure, the bond between the quad Suns isn’t as notable and prosperous as the one established on the Main Line but it’s still intriguing to see Leon Rose and Co. take this approach as an alternative to star hunting.

If there’s a complaint to be had about the Knicks’ Villanova obsession, it’s that the group assembled acquired a ring (or two) in college but that championship has yet to be realized in the pros (Donte DiVincenzo has a ring but missed the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2021 title run with an injury).

That complaint is somewhat negated with the favorite Suns: with the exception of Bates-Diop (who was still working in San Antonio at the time), the group each partook in the 2021 NBA Finals, the first back in home arenas after the Walt Disney World bubble effort the year prior. They fell in six to the aforementioned Bucks but they still give the Knicks a certain brand of championship panache that was lacking.

Adding Finals participants for the apparent sake of it in the hopes that it’s some sort of magic spell for a championship is a bit of a storybook approach, but it’s not as if there’s a lack of recent historical precedent.

The newly-recrowned Boston Celtics didn’t break through until they brought in Jrue Holiday, yet another former Buck. The Golden State Warriors added one last ring to their fingers after getting prior champ Andre Iguodala, far from his prime but still reliable, back for another run.

But the Knicks are also upping the ante by upping their familiarity entering the 2024-25 season, something that the other big East players are somewhat lacking as a fateful season looms.

With so much turnover, one would think that the Knicks would fall victim to a slow start. Keeping things in the relative families … both of which somehow involve Bridges … reduces the relative possibility. Even those excluded have a bit of an edge: what do Miles McBride, Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, and Jericho Sims have that others on this oft-changing roster don’t? They know exactly what Thibodeau is looking for on the floor, which gives them special roles on the championship trek … however long their ticket is good for.

Of course, the most amateur of hardwood philosophers will tell you that it’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish. The Knicks did well with what they had last season… even the most optimistic New Yorker would not have placed them second in their preseason bracket … but if they want to make a statement via regular season supremacy, they’ll have to be as locked in as possible from the get-go: defending champion Boston, after all, won the conference by 14 games.

One thing’s for certain in the increasingly unstable NBA prognostication landscape: name tags won’t be necessary in New York this year. Introducing themselves to Mr. Larry O’Brien, on the other hand…

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