Photo: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images
On Sunday night, something unprecedented happened at Madison Square Garden: A legitimately exciting preseason NBA game took place.
The basketball part of the evening was not itself compelling, and how could it have been? It was an exhibition, on a Sunday night, featuring mostly New York Knicks backups. It was competing for eyeballs against a Giants-Bengals matchup at the Meadowlands and Game 1 of the Mets-Dodgers NLCS.
And yet. The Knicks were squaring off against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team with whom New York had made a high-stakes trade with about a month ago, one that brought All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns to New York and sent Knicks stalwarts Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota. DiVincenzo was part of the “Nova Knicks” nucleus of Villanova alumni, along with Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, that propelled the team last year, and which was subsequently blown up by the Towns trade. But clearly he wasn’t interested in taking it easy on his former teammates. When he stepped to the free-throw line in the first quarter, wearing his Timberwolves jersey in front of the Knicks crowd for the first time, he began jawing with the New York bench. Initially, it looked to be playful banter, until assistant coach Rick Brunson got involved, at which point the shouting began. Any notion that it was all in fun vanished when, postgame, DiVincenzo physically had to be separated from Brunson to prevent fisticuffs from breaking out.
What actually happened between the former Knicks player and the current Knicks assistant coach — and what the beef was actually about — still isn’t exactly clear. But the details aren’t what’s interesting. What’s interesting is that the guy DiVincenzo was yelling at wasn’t just any Knicks assistant coach: It was the father of Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson, who was not only the king of the Nova Knicks, but is in fact one of DiVincenzo’s best friends. (DiVincenzo was even in Brunson’s wedding just last year.) The 2023 Knicks made a deeper playoff run than they had in a decade, and the vibes were better at Madison Square Garden than at any time since the ’90s. And yet the next time everybody stepped back on the MSG court, they were all fighting.
Ahead of their season opener against the defending champion Celtics on Tuesday, the Knicks have transformed themselves. They’d spent years looking for a star, but after Brunson made himself into one on their watch, then turned down more money in free agency to help the Knicks build their roster, they had a clear choice this offseason. They could ride the Nova Knicks vibes, doubling down on the current incarnation of the team built around Brunson and his buddies, or swing big and try to win a title right now. The Towns trade was that big swing: The sometimes uneven but unquestionably skilled center (who is an immensely likable dude, it should be said) is the sort of transcendent talent that could turn the Knicks into instant title contenders — or be the proverbial fly in the proverbial ointment that messes up the delicate chemistry the Nova Knicks possessed. The trade was a sign that the Knicks weren’t content with the Vibes: They wanted the best player they could get. They wanted that title right now.
Towns, theoretically, is a perfect fit for this Knicks team. They now have everything a title contender needs: A brilliant point guard; a series of versatile wing players in OG Anunoby, Bridges, and Hart; and a magnificent scorer in Towns, whose pick-and-roll game with Brunson should be devastating and potentially unguardable. The Knicks feel built specifically with defeating the defending champion Celtics — who are big and have shooters everywhere — in mind, which is not the sort of ambitious roster construction you take part in if you are looking a few years down the road. The team lost considerable depth in the trade, which is a concern given the injury-prone Anunoby, but their starting five is as good as any in the NBA. As their WNBA counterparts the Liberty play for a title, the Knicks clearly want in on the glory too.
But the question is: Did they lose more than depth in the trade? Did they lose that ineffable chemistry that made them so thrilling last year? It’s not like all the Nova Knicks are gone, of course: Nova alum Bridges is a clear talent upgrade from Nova alum DiVincenzo. But Towns does change the balance here, and it’s not certain he’ll nestle in as comfortably as the Knicks want him to. And because he’s the player who will represent the inevitable Vibe Shift, he will, fairly or not, be the target of fans’ ire if there are struggles. (It sure won’t be Brunson, the most purely popular New York City athlete since Mariano Rivera — including Derek Jeter.) Towns was occasionally booed in Minnesota, if only because he’s a big, easily spotted, very expensive talent: the kind of player who gets blamed for a team’s shortcomings, particularly when he’s the new guy. It’s actually a bit of a compliment to Towns that he’ll face so much scrutiny this year; it’s a sign that his arrival really does bring title expectations. I bet it won’t feel that way for him, though.
The Knicks were cuddly, warm, and impossible to dislike last year: They certainly weren’t the sort of team having fights with former teammates during preseason games. For all the joy they brought to New York, they also weren’t quite good enough to win an NBA title. This team just might be. But it’s also possible that they’ll be the worst of both worlds: a team that’s not as good as last year’s and less fun to cheer for. The current Knicks got this far by avoiding the throw-caution-to-the-wind, all-in move the old version of the team destroyed themselves by making. Now they, too, have thrown caution to the wind. It’s understandable and it might work. But if you’ve made yourself less charming in order to win a title … you better win a title.
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