Getty New York Knicks guard Kemba Walker looks on prior to a game against his former club, the Charlotte Hornets.
After a woeful stretch from mid-January to early March that saw the team go 3-17 with a net rating of minus-7.0, the New York Knicks displayed incredible growth down the stretch. However, Leon Rose and Co. still have a lot of work to do this offseason if they hope to make a quick return to the playoffs.
First and foremost, the team needs to bring in a legit floor general to run the offense — one that isn’t Kemba Walker’s ghost or a mispositioned Alec Burks.
To that end, the team has been linked to Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell and breakout Mav Jalen Brunson. However, getting either to NYC could prove too costly or cumbersome to pull off.
In the event that they can’t reel a big fish to be their lead guard, the Knicks could look to a younger player, one with room to grow while still having an impressive baseline of point guard skills. Particularly, a former No. 1 overall pick looking to turn heads next season.
Knicks Could Make a Play for Markelle Fultz
In an effort to bring in a legitimate quarterback while also clearing a modicum of cap space, we’re pitching the following trade for the Knicks:
- New York Knicks receive: G Markelle Fultz
- Orlando Magic receive: G/F Alec Burks, PG Kemba Walker and a 2023 first-round pick (top-eight protected)
Fultz returned to the court late this season after having suffered a torn ACL in January of 2021. And while he now found himself playing behind Cole Anthony and he only saw action in 18 games, the 2017 All-American displayed incredible growth as a point guard.
Per 36 minutes, he averaged a whopping 9.9 assists, a number that would have ranked third in the entire NBA had he logged more games.
Meanwhile, he continued to show flashes of the potential as a scorer and finisher that once made him the no-brainer (at the time) pick at first overall by Philly. In addition to hitting a career-best 47.4% of his field-goal attempts overall, Fultz was at 77.5% within three feet of the hoop last season.
He may never be the player many expected him to be coming out of Washington or a deadeye marksman from three-point range. However, his infamous hitch is gone, he has grown leaps and bounds as a playmaker and, at just 23 years old, there may still be a star turn in his future.
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Few Knicks fans would be shedding tears over the departure of Walker, who has a lot to prove next season, and Burks isn’t much of a needle-mover, either. Moreover, Orlando would be saving the Knicks some cash during an important offseason.
So, in order to actually get a deal done, we’re throwing in a valuable first-round pick with only a modest level of protection.
This way, the Knicks won’t miss out on a money pick should they continue their backward slide but the Magic still have significant upside potential on their end.
Parting with Fultz may or may not be in Orlando’s plans but doing so would be a much-deserved vote of confidence in Anthony, who logged a 16-6-5 line last season. Moreover, a pick that could be in the mid-to-late lottery plus trade assets in Burks and Walker equates to quite the haul for a player who would likely be a backup in 2022-23.
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