Browsing: Knicks

The deliberately short-handed Knicks wrapped up their preseason slate on a high note, outlasting the Hornets, 113-108, on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

Here are the takeaways…

— As much as the Knicks wanted their final exhibition game to serve as a proper dress rehearsal with the regular season opener less than a week away, head coach Mike Brown ultimately erred on the side of caution with a few banged-up starters. Before the game, he ruled out Josh Hart(back), Karl-Anthony Towns (quad), and OG Anunoby(ankle) as preventative measures. Mitchell Robinson (load management) was also given the night off.

— The emphasis on quicker ball movement and frequent three-point shooting was apparent from the jump. As the Knicks’ only lineup regulars, Jalen Brunson tallied 15 first-quarter points (12 shots) with two assists and two rebounds across 11 minutes, while Mikal Bridges added five points with four boards in seven minutes. The planned rest for key players pushed Jordan Clarkson into the starting five, and he demonstrated his value as an impact bench scorer by posting eight points with a pair of made threes. Overall, the Knicks shot 39 percent (7 of 18) from beyond the arc in the period.

— Among the bench players competing for a roster spot is Landry Shamet, and the veteran guard showed some shrewd physicality in the second quarter by forcing a couple of Hornets turnovers. He also scored five points in 11 minutes. Tyler Kolek logged the fewest first-half minutes (6) in the 10-man rotation, and before halftime, Brunson produced 20 points (7 of 15 shooting) and appeared to debut a new archery-style hand celebration. Circling back to that stress on three-point shots — the Knicks took 30 through 24 minutes. At the break, they held a 64-54 lead on 47-percent shooting.

— Brunson and Bridges didn’t treat the preseason finale like a practice session. They maintained regular-season rhythms in the third quarter, combining for 12 points to push their game totals to 27 and 14, respectively. There was a brief injury scare for Miles McBride midway through the period, when he landed awkwardly on the baseline after having a runner emphatically rejected. While he got up gingerly with a limp, he stayed in the game and appeared to jog off the discomfort. The Knicks were outscored by seven points in the third, but still held a 90-87 advantage.

— The start of the fourth quarter didn’t mark the end for the Knicks’ pair of stars. Bridges continued to hustle in transition, pulling off a highlight-reel swat that preceded a one-handed slam midway through the period. Brunson, who was subbed out with 3:33 left in the third, checked back in with 7:41 remaining in regulation. Of course, it wasn’t a dress rehearsal for three Knicks starters, but their captain lived up to midseason form with a laudable 31 points in 34 minutes. Bridges also performed at a high level, racking up 16 points with seven rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks across 33 minutes.

— “I thought we did some pretty good things tonight, especially starting two young guys in [Mohamed Diawara] and [Trey Jemison], but we played in spurts too many times,” Brown said. “We just gotta be a little more consistent with what we’re doing. And if we do, we’re gonna have a chance to be pretty good.”

— Brown has set a goal for the Knicks to average 40 threes per game this season, and they met the mark by posting 48 with a success rate of 38 percent. While the team struggled to contain Hornets starters Miles Bridges and Collin Sexton — they combined for 41 points — they still forced 21 turnovers and won the rebounds (44-41), steals (11-9), and paint points (40-34) battles. McBride found a groove off the bench, scoring 15 points with four assists in 24 minutes, while Shamet added six second-half points to finish with 11 over 20 minutes. Clarkson reached 13 points over 23 minutes.

Highlights

Clarkson fires away immediately pic.twitter.com/LOmbiruwq7

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) October 17, 2025

Jalen pic.twitter.com/YnDgCXA4da

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) October 18, 2025

Brunson behind the back to Jemison! pic.twitter.com/BMp6k1C1HS

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) October 18, 2025

Mikal slam! pic.twitter.com/3RR1aeouMR

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) October 18, 2025

What’s next

The Knicks will begin regular-season play at home on Wednesday night, in a highly anticipated matchup with the Cavaliers (7 p.m. tip-off).

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The Knicks may not have Josh Hart(back), Mitchell Robinson (workload management), Karl-Anthony Towns (quad) and OG Anunoby(ankle) for their preseason finale on Friday night.

Robinson was held out of practice on Wednesday and Thursday due to workload management.

Due to his injury history, New York plans to manage Robinson’s workload for the foreseeable future. That means he will miss games during the regular season when healthy.

Robinson has been dealing with some soreness in the preseason. Maybe the Knicks hold him out on Friday due to precautionary reasons ahead of the regular season. (It would be a surprise if the Knicks’ workload management plan kept Robinson from playing in Wednesday’s season opener).

ESPN NBA analyst Richard Jefferson sees Robinson as a key to this Knicks season.

“You look at Mitchell Robinson; how healthy is he going to be? What is their big depth? Especially when you look at what’s coming out of the West. Most likely what’s going to come out of the West is a team with at least two or possibly three very good bigs,” Jefferson said on a conference call Thursday to preview the NBA season.

“Mitchell Robinson has to be healthy. If he’s not healthy and Karl-Anthony Towns is your primary big and you’re going to try to win a championship against all of those bigs that are floating around… if he’s not healthy during the season, they’re going to have trouble in my opinion.”

Jefferson would also like to see the Knicks’ offense a bit more balanced this season under Mike Brown. He believes it will pay dividends in the postseason.

“I’m talking about a fraction (of a change to the offense). I like the ball in Jalen Brunson’s hands – he’s the type of player that can do all the things,” Jefferson said. “But just a little bit more balance can take pressure off of him. That’s what I think will allow him a little more burst. You don’t want him working as hard – especially if you’re planning on playing until June. Because that’s a different monster.

“Playing all season takes a special player. Playing a couple rounds in the playoffs, as the main guy, is another level. Playing all the way to the Finals? If you’re having to do that, that’s very very difficult. So even relieving some of that pressure …I think will help because they’re minutes will be down throughout the regular season because of the coaching change.”

Fellow ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler will be watching New York’s pick-and-roll defense closely throughout the season.

Legler said on Wednesday that the Knicks “need to be much better defensively than they’ve been in defending ball screens. That was a major problem from them a year ago. They can get physical with (OG) Anunoby and (Mikal) Bridges and things on the wings, the way they can guard one on one.

“But their ability to defend ball screens is going to be challenged every night. They’ve got to figure out how they defend that. Because they were taken advantage of a year ago, everybody knew that, they attacked it.”

Both Legler and Jefferson agree that the Knicks’ health in the postseason is incredibly important. You can say the same for every team. But the Knicks need a healthy Robinson in high-stakes playoff games. Without Robinson, the club can’t play its double big lineup and it would presumably ask Towns to play center.

“The talent is there, the opportunity is there. The Knicks should be thinking ‘Get to the Finals,’” Legler said. “Anything short of that this year should be a disappointment for the New York Knicks, that’s the way they should view it because of what’s in front of them in the Eastern Conference.”

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The 2025-26 NBA season is here! We’re rolling out our previews — examining the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and win projections for all 30 franchises — from the still-rebuilding teams to the true title contenders.

2024-25 finish

• Record: 51-31 (lost to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals)

Offseason moves

• Additions: Guerschon Yabusele, Jordan Clarkson

• Subtractions: Precious Achiuwa, P.J. Tucker

(Stefan Milic/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

The Big Question: Can Mike Brown improve these Knicks?

The Knicks pulled off somewhat of a stunning upset, ousting the defending champion Boston Celtics in a six-game second-round playoff series. They ran into their ceiling a round later, losing to the fifth-seeded Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. They defied expectations, only to fall short of them.

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It is a weird situation. On the one hand, nobody figured them for the league’s final four, not with two 60-win teams plying their trade in the East. On the other, they got there and had a real chance to make the Finals. For that, the Knicks decided to part ways with Tom Thibodeau, the coach who got them there.

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There is no doubt that over the course of Thibodeau’s tenure the Knicks overachieved. They reached the playoffs in four of his five seasons on the bench, winning four playoff series — more than the franchise’s 13 other coaches this century combined. And their best player, Jalen Brunson, is a 6-foot-2 point guard.

Brunson also happens to be one hell of a player. He averaged 26 points (49/38/82 shooting splits) and 7.3 assists per game at the helm of a top-five offense, garnering MVP votes for a second straight season. He was incredible in the playoffs, making clutch play after clutch play. How much longer he can maintain this pace as an undersized superstar remains to be seen, but at 29 years old he is squarely in his prime.

He is also bolstered by one of the league’s best playoff rotations, featuring Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson. The additions of Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson make the Knicks deeper. With Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton sidelined for the Celtics and Pacers, respectively, New York has as clear a view of the NBA Finals as it has had since 1999.

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The Knicks saw a chance and took it. Kind of. Upon firing Thibodeau, the Knicks sought interviews with a handful of employed coaches, all of whom turned them down. In the end, they landed on Mike Brown.

Brown is a good coach. He took what he learned offensively as an assistant for the 2022 NBA champion Golden State Warriors and applied it to the Sacramento Kings, ending the franchise’s 17-year playoff drought. They thought they were better than they were, too, and fired him in the middle of last season.

[Get more Knicks news: New York team feed]

That’s the thing. Sometimes it isn’t the coach. Sometimes it is the personnel. And the Knicks have not had the personnel to reach the Finals. They have what some might consider a fatal flaw — the defense of Brunson and Towns. Neither is a stopper. Not close to it. Only they have to be on the floor together. And together they submitted a middling defense last year. Can Brown scheme around two defensive issues?

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More likely, Brown will lean into his team’s incredible offensive prowess, using more Brunson-Towns pick-and-rolls and movement in the offense, hoping to squeeze more from what was already a top-five outfit.

With Tatum and Haliburton out of the picture and the East’s last two champions in a gap year, the path to the Finals is open for the Knicks. They think they have the personnel now, but do they have the coach?

Best-case scenario

Brown coaches the Knicks up as one of the league’s elite offenses and finds a way to field a serviceable defense, perhaps benefitting from the presence of Robinson, who missed a good chunk of last season with an injury. Brunson maintains as one of the league’s elite playmakers. Towns, who has reached the finals of both conferences the last two years, carries that confidence into this season. Bridges and Anunoby find some consistency as reliable two-way performers, and the Knicks are the class of the East.

If everything falls apart

Brunson steps back from the MVP race. He and Towns cannot scrape together a top-10 defense. Bridges and Anunoby are as inconsistent as ever. Yabusele and Clarkson are not playoff difference-makers. Brown is no better than Thibodeau. The Knicks slam their heads against a sub-Finals ceiling once again, even in a watered-down Eastern Conference, and the outlook for the 2026-27 season is no better. Maybe they take another crack at trying to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, but do they have the assets to get him?

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2025-26 schedule

• Season opener: Oct. 22 vs. Cleveland

Who else but the Knicks are capable of winning 55 games in the East? The Cleveland Cavaliers? Somebody has to win games, and the road could not be clearer for New York. Take the over.

More season previews

East: Atlanta Hawks • Boston Celtics • Brooklyn Nets • Charlotte Hornets • Chicago Bulls • Cleveland Cavaliers • Detroit Pistons • Indiana Pacers • Miami Heat • Milwaukee Bucks • New York Knicks • Orlando Magic • Philadelphia 76ers • Toronto Raptors • Washington Wizards

West: Dallas Mavericks • Denver Nuggets • Golden State Warriors • Houston Rockets • LA Clippers • Los Angeles Lakers • Memphis Grizzlies • Minnesota Timberwolves • New Orleans Pelicans • Oklahoma City Thunder • Phoenix Suns • Portland Trail Blazers • Sacramento Kings • San Antonio Spurs • Utah Jazz

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New York Knicks guard Malcolm Brogdon has decided to retire from basketball after nine NBA seasons, he told ESPN on Wednesday.

Brogdon, who averaged 12.7 points, 4.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds in a career-low 24 games for the Washington Wizards last season, was on track to make the Knicks’ final roster, but he had been contemplating retirement and informed team officials Wednesday of his decision.

“Today, I officially begin my transition out of my basketball career,” Brogdon, 32, told ESPN in a statement. “I have proudly given my mind, body and spirit to the game over the last few decades. With the many sacrifices it took to get here, I have received many rewards.

“I am deeply grateful to have arrived to this point on my own terms and now to be able to reap the benefits of my career with my family and friends. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all who have had a place in my journey.”

Congrats on your retirement, Malcolm!

Best of luck in your next chapter 👠pic.twitter.com/zwtxHBkWpb

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) October 15, 2025

Brogdon was slated to be a reserve point guard for the Knicks this season under new coach Mike Brown, so his decision to retire impacts the roster construction.

The No. 36 pick in the 2016 draft, Brogdon was the NBA Rookie of the Year with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2017 and the NBA Sixth Man of the Year with the Boston Celtics in 2023.

He is one of two players to have won both awards, along with Mike Miller.

Brogdon shot a combined 43% from 3-point range during the 2022-24 seasons, which ranked fourth in the league, but he fell to a career-low 29% last season.

In his nine NBA seasons, Brogdon averaged 15.3 points, 4.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds in 29.1 minutes per game with the Wizards, Trail Blazers, Celtics, Pacers and Bucks.

ESPN Research contributed to this report.

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Malcolm Brogdon is calling it a career.

Brogdon announced his decision to retire from the league after nine seasons on Wednesday afternoon, just a week before he and the New York Knicks were set to officially open the 2025-26 campaign.

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“Today, I officially begin my transition out of my basketball career,” Brogdon said in a statement, via ESPN’s Shams Charania. “I have proudly given my mind, body and spirit to the game over the last few decades. With the many sacrifices it took to get here, I have received many rewards. I am deeply grateful to have arrived to this point on my own terms and now to be able to reap the benefits of my career with my family and friends.

“Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all who have had a place in my journey.”

Brogdon had signed a one-year deal with the Knicks earlier this offseason, though he was fighting to make the final roster spot with the franchise ahead of opening day when he opted to retire instead. He had played in four preseason games with the team this fall, most recently on Monday night against the Washington Wizards.

Brogdon played at Virginia from 2011-2016, where he earned consensus first-team All American honors as a senior. The Milwaukee Bucks then selected him with the No. 36 overall pick in 2016, and he spent his first three seasons in the league with the franchise. He was dealt to the Indiana Pacers after three seasons, and he spent another three years there before bouncing around repeatedly in recent years. Brogdon spent a season with both the Boston Celtics and Portland Trail Blazers before landing with the Wizards last season, where he averaged 12.7 points and 4.1 assists in just 24 games while dealing with multiple injuries.

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In total, Brogdon averaged 15.3 points, 4.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game throughout his career. He earned Rookie of the Year honors in 2017 and was the league’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2023 when he was with the Boston Celtics.

The Knicks, who reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years earlier this spring, will open the regular season under new head coach Mike Brown on Oct. 22 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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After denying the New York Knicks’ request to interview head coach Jason Kidd earlier this offseason, the Dallas Mavericks made a further commitment to him on Xday.

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Mavs rewarded Kidd with a multi-year contract on Tuesday.

The team also had signed him to a multi-year contract extension in May 2024.

Kidd was rumored to have mutual interest in the head coaching opening with the Knicks following the surprising firing of Tom Thibodeau, but the Mavs wasted little time in shutting down New York’s attempt to poach the 52-year-old.

Dallas originally hired Kidd prior to the 2021-22 season, bringing him back to the franchise that drafted him No. 2 overall in 1994 and with which he won an NBA championship in 2011. In four years at the helm, the former point guard has guided the Mavs to two playoff appearances with a run to the Western Conference Finals in 2022 and a trip to the NBA Finals in 2024.

Kidd was tasked with an unimaginable set of circumstances during the 2024-25 season, as Dallas general manager Nico Harrison made the shocking decision to trade star guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. The move kicked off a series of unfortunate events for the Mavs, as multiple key players missed extended time with injuries, including a six-week absence for star forward Anthony Davis and a season-ending torn ACL for star guard Kyrie Irving.

After all the chaos, Dallas finished the year with a 39-43 record and lost in the final play-in tournament game. Despite the disappointing ending to the season, the Mavs’ luck quickly turned around when they landed the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft lottery. The team used the selection on Duke star and National Player of the Year Cooper Flagg, providing optimism that the future is bright in Dallas.

Kidd will now turn the page as the Mavs enter a new era with Flagg and Davis leading the way, as Tuesday’s deal cements him as the man to try to lead the franchise back to the title picture.

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The Knicks, playing without a single starter and several key reserves, got worked over by the Washington Wizards, 120-103, for their first preseason loss of the year on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

In their fourth preseason game of the year, the Knicks decided to sit Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Ariel Hukporti, Mitchell Robinson, and Landry Shamet. Head coach Mike Brownsaid before the game that he intended to start Hukporti and play Shamet, who is one of three veteran players on a non-guaranteed contract fighting for one roster spot, but both were ruled out due to illness.

In their place, Malcolm Brogdon, Deuce McBride, Jordan Clarkson, Pacome Dadiet, and Guerschon Yabusele went out as the starting five with the plan to give the players of the second unit and those on the roster bubble an extended run.

“I thought our starters did not bring the energy,” Brown said after the game. “This is probably our worst basketball game overall. We did it in spurts: we weren’t very good to start the game, we weren’t very good to start the third quarter.”

Washington capitalized by shooting the lights out, 68.3 percent in the first half and 53.7 percent for the game. New York made up for the lack of defensive production with a rough shooting night, 41.9 percent in the first half and 44.4 percent for the game.

The plus-minus for the starting five was not pretty: Clarkson minus-29 in 21 minutes, Dadiet minus-20 in 24 minutes, Yabusele minus-33 in 23 minutes, Brogdon minus-30 in 18 minutes, McBride minus-26 in 28 minutes.

But, always the teacher, there was a positive to take from a game that didn’t go their way.

“Great film to learn from because we made a lot of mistakes that have been uncharacteristic of who we’ve been so far, even in practice, we’ve played a lot better than this in terms of what we’re trying to do offensively and defensively,” Brown said. “Great learning experience, we’ll all grow from it, and, hopefully take that step forward instead of just thinking we took a step backwards because we didn’t play well tonight.

Here are the takeaways…

– Dadiet took advantage of some good early looks, knocking down a pair of early threes. There were a few times when the 20-year-old looked a bit lost on the defensive end. He finished with eight points on 2-for-7 shooting (2-for-6 from deep) with six rebounds (two offensive).

 Ahead of the game, Brown highlighted how the Knicks are going to look for opportunities this year to get Dadiet time as they really like his upside.

“He’s just gotta continue to understand how big he is,” Brown said. “He’s long. He’s a big wing. And at times, he doesn’t utilize it. We always talk about playing big, playing big, playing big. And he doesn’t utilize it all the time. And that’s just being young. At times, he’s a little quiet and he’s a little unsure of what he should be saying or doing.

“So we keep trying to throw him into the fire as much as possible. It’s something that I’d like to do come regular season. I don’t know how many minutes he’s gonna get per game. But he definitely has a chance to be a player in this league for a long time, and you wanna help try to speed that development up because you see a lot of good things.

“You see he can run, you see he can cut, he’s big… you see he does a petty good job of finishing and shoot the basketball. And you couple that with his ability to play defense, and you have a pretty good young prospect, especially for his age.”

– An area of concern: The Wizards were able to get good looks and forced an early timeout by Brown. The defense is still a work in progress for this bunch of Knicks as they learn the new head coach’s system and Washington took advantage, connecting on 65 percent from the floor (13 of 20) in the first quarter for a 36-26 lead. That continued in the second, with the visitors making seven of their next 10 field goals en route to shooting 71.4 percent in the period (15 of 21 and 5 of 9 from three) for a 75-52 halftime edge. Naturally, the Wizards opened the third with an 11-0 run on their way to building a 34-point lead at one point before the Knicks clawed their way back to a more respectable deficit.

– Clarkson connected on three of his first five attempts (2-for-4 from three) in the first. He led the Knicks with 10 first-half points (4-for-7 shooting) and should have had a few assists if some open looks had gone down. It wasn’t a great shooting night from deep,  7-for-24 (29.2 percent) in the first half and 6-for-18 (33.3 percent) after the interval. Clarkson finished with 12 points on 4-for-11 shooting (2-for-5 from deep) with one rebound, four turnovers, and zero assists.

Brown said the Wizards didn’t do anything “tricky,” they were “just in the right spot defensively.”

“They tried to play the way that we’ve been playing throughout the preseason, every day in practice and it showed at times to be very good basketball,” he said, adding that overall, it wasn’t good enough. “We needed to do better collectively as a unit when it came to doing the little things, starting with boxing out we weren’t great at it. Defensively, we weren’t great in our shifts, and we’d been pretty darn good in those two area so far.”

– One of the culprits hurting Clarkson’s assist numbers was McBride, who was 1-for-5 in the first half, missing all four of his attempts from three, with two turnovers and two fouls in the first half. McBride found his range at the start of the fourth with consecutive threes to cut the deficit to 19. He finished with 11 points on 4-for-12 shooting (2-for-9 from three) with two assists and a rebound.

– Brogdon, another one of the three vets on a non-guaranteed deal, got off to a cold start shooting (2-for-7 from the floor) in the first and committed three fouls; he did add three assists. He appeared a step slow on the offensive end. His night ended with four points on 2-for-7 shooting with three assists, two rebounds, and a steal.

– Yabusele made his first three of the preseason in the first to go along with two assists in the early goings, and showed off a jump hook in the second. The new Knick made another three midway into the third, just the team’s second field goal out of their first 12 attempts of the quarter, which cut it to a 30-point deficit. He ended with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting with five rebounds (four offensive) and two assists.

– Tyler Kolek had a solid second quarter with seven points, three assists, and a steal. He had a nice run of three straight buckets to end the third, cutting the deficit to 100-75. Kolek finished with a team-high 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting (1-for-5 from three) with six assists, four rebounds, and a steal. He finished a plus-10.

“I thought the guys coming off the bench, they did a great job, Tyler gave us great minutes,” Brown said.

– Trey Jemison IIIadded nine points with four rebounds and was a plus-11 in 15 minutes. Tosan Evbuomwan had seven points and four rebounds and was a plus-17 in 15 minutes.

Highlights

A pair of corner triples for Pacôme Dadiet pic.twitter.com/l9d0aSOSO2

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) October 13, 2025

Kevin McCullar Jr. from DEEP pic.twitter.com/jjVZsqGtW0

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) October 14, 2025

What’s next

The Knicks conclude their preseason slate with a Friday night tilt against the Charlotte Hornets at MSG. Tip is set for 7:30 before New York opens the regular season on Oct. 22.

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This week, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks had discussions in August regarding a potential trade for superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, though nothing came to fruition.

But that reportedly caught the attention of a number of teams around the NBA.

“When that report came out, the fact that the Knicks and Bucks had some level of negotiation, as you can imagine some teams checked in with the Bucks. Like, ‘Hey, are you open to negotiations with Giannis?’ And the answer has been a resounding ‘no’ from what I’m told,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported Sunday. “So everybody is locked in on this year. And I know Giannis is prepared to try to do the most for the Bucks. No matter what it looks like, how they stack up to the other teams, the Bucks believe with Myles Turner and Giannis and their other returning players that they can be a contender in the East. But there’s no way that this Giannis thing is not gonna come back to the surface.”

It’s hard to imagine the Bucks ever truly entertaining a trade of Antetokounmpo unless he either demands it or it becomes clear that the championship window is closed and a rebuild is in order. Neither scenario has definitively played out to this point.

As Charania reported, the Bucks “insisted to the Knicks that they preferred not to move Antetokounmpo, but those in Milwaukee believe New York did not make a strong enough offer to continue even discussing a trade, league sources said. It’s unclear how the Bucks would have responded to an all-out chase by the Knicks. The multi-week process was described by one source with direct knowledge of the talks as an exclusive negotiating window. New York, for its part, believes the Bucks never were serious about entertaining an Antetokounmpo trade, sources said.”

According to Charania, the Knicks have long hoped to pry Antetokounmpo away from Milwaukee, with league sources believing that if the superstar is to ever leave the Bucks, he would choose the Knicks. For now, that speculated marriage isn’t happening, but if the Bucks start poorly this season, you can bet rumors about a potential Antetokounmpo departure will rev up yet again.

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Perhaps if the Los Angeles Lakers had a more realistic chance of landing a transformational superstar like Giannis Antetokounmpo down the line they would be more hesitant to make short-term additions.

However, the Milwaukee Bucks star has been primarily connected to the New York Knicks, and Lakers insider Jovan Buha (54-minute mark, h/t Hoops Hype) reported Los Angeles might be “more open to a short-term move” as a result:Â

“Giannis Antetokounmpo has left the door cracked open, but we’ve since had the reporting that Giannis’ preferred destination was the Knicks, not the Lakers, and that it was really one team he was considering, and that was specifically the Knicks. I wonder if the Lakers recent shift toward being more of a kind of short-term or like win-now mode is maybe in part due to DonÄić’s success at Eurobasket, but I think more so maybe gaining some intel that some of the big fish that they were hoping to catch are not going to be available or as available as they thought.Â

“I think the Lakers got to be careful with how they position themselves for the future because if it’s tough to find a Knicks-Giannis trade. So if that for whatever reason just can’t happen and Milwaukee refuses to play ball with New York because they just they don’t want to trade him in conference, they don’t like what New York’s offering, then the Lakers can swoop in and potentially offer a competitive package. … You got to be careful with the cap space, but it does seem like the Lakers are a little bit more open to a short-term move.”

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported the Knicks were “the only place Antetokounmpo wanted to play outside of Milwaukee,” which led to trade discussions between the two teams.

Yet those discussions “never got traction” as “those in Milwaukee believe New York did not make a strong enough offer” while the Knicks did not think the Bucks “were serious about entertaining an Antetokounmpo trade.”

From the Lakers’ perspective, a short-term move could help them capitalize on the upcoming season with DonÄić and LeBron James still paired together. The King is 40 years old and entering the final season of his deal, so the organization’s focus will likely eventually turn to building a winner around DonÄić.

Los Angeles’ front office will surely evaluate how things are unfolding in the loaded Western Conference ahead of the February trade deadline and re-assess accordingly, but a quick start could make it more likely to focus on win-now moves with one of the league’s best one-two punches in DonÄić and James leading the way.

That is especially true if the front office wouldn’t be sacrificing a realistic chance of landing a two-time MVP like Antetokounmpo with such a move.

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The New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors have mutually and voluntarily decided to dismiss a lawsuit filed in 2023, which most people around the league thought should never have been filed, a story broken by Baxter Holmes for ESPN. A spokesperson for the teams gave ESPN this statement:

“The Knicks and [Raptors owner] Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment withdrew their respective claims and the matter is resolved. The Parties are focused on the future.â€

The lawsuit was over something seen as commonplace in NBA circles (sources who had been in similar jobs told NBC Sports at the time that this was no big deal and the suit seemed “very James Dolanâ€). New York was seeking $10 million in damages from Toronto for the alleged “theft of trade secrets†when the Raptors hired away New Yorkâ€s director of video/analytics/and a player development assistant coach, Ikechukwu Azotam. In the suit, the Knicks alleged that the Raptors organization — at the behest of rookie head coach Darko Rajakovic — took more than 3,000 confidential, proprietary files, including video scouting files and play frequency numbers. Part of the Knicks†argument was that Rajakovic didnâ€t have the depth of background to build a team structure, so he stole that from New York. That despite the fact that Rajakovic had been a legendary head coach in Serbia, was head coach of the Tulsa 66ers of the G-League, and was an assistant known for player development with the Thunder, Suns and Grizzlies.

Torontoâ€s first counterargument was that this had to be decided by the NBA league office and commissioner Adam Silver, not the courts. Toronto reached out to the NBAâ€s general council and pointed out that the NBAâ€s constitution (Article 24, bylaw “Dâ€) states: “The Commissioner shall have exclusive, full, complete, and final jurisdiction of any dispute involving two (2) or more Members of the Association.†Dolan, who has had a long-running feud with Silver, did not feel the commissioner would be an unbiased arbiter of the situation.

In the end, both sides just decided to drop the issue and move on.

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