It could have been much worse.
The Knicks could have gotten fleeced in their biggest trade of the title-contention era.
Fleeced they were not. The new-look roster sets the foundation to compete for a championship in the years to come.
But what are the Knicks going to do now that they’ve lost Donte DiVincenzo?
New York upgraded in the front court, trading three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection Julius Randle for four-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA selection and 2022 Three-Point Champion Karl-Anthony Towns.
Yet the inclusion of DiVincenzo, the franchise’s own three-point king, without receiving a player at his position in return leaves the roster relatively thin in the back court.
DiVincenzo set career-highs across the board: 81 games played, 15.5 points and 40.1% shooting on 8.7 three-point attempts per game, not to mention 107 total steals in a breakout season at Madison Square Garden.
His loss, however, stings more for emotional reasons than X’s and O’s, lineups or rotations: The Knicks can fill his role at a fraction of the cost of his four-year, $46.9 million deal.
That’s because three-and-D wings of DiVincenzo’s ilk tend to be a dime a dozen, and while the Villanova storyline would have been good for headlines, the Knicks are more concerned about the bottom line.
With the second apron and its significant roster-building restrictions looming, every dollar counts as the Knicks assemble a team they hope can deliver the franchise its first championship in over 50 years.
And while DiVincenzo was an integral part of last season’s team, at his core, he is a three-point specialist capable of putting the ball on the floor and defending the point of attack. He was also a huge crunch-time performer last season — sinking the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs — but in a reduced role on the new-look Knicks, those clutch opportunities likely would have been fewer and further between.
Plus the Knicks already have two players at DiVincenzo’s position capable of playing his role — and they have the assets, albeit dwindling in quantity and value, to go get another.
Miles McBride and Landry Shamet will now step up in the rotation — provided, of course, McBride is as untouchable as his continued presence on the roster would suggest, and provided Shamet, who is on a non-guaranteed training camp deal, makes the regular-season roster after the Knicks waived Marcus Morris and Chuma Okeke on Saturday.
The West Virginia product is a defensive pest who shot 41% from three-point range and is expected to take a Year 4 leap. He quickly made the three-year, $13 million deal the Knicks gave him in the aftermath of the Immanuel Quickley trade look like a steal.
And while Shamet is coming off the worst three-point shooting season of his career (33.8%), it is not uncommon for playoff-caliber players to succumb to the level of their environment as he did on the dumpster-fire Washington Wizards last season.
Even with last year’s shooting slump, Shamet is a 38.4% career three-point shooter who doubles as a willing, capable defender, qualities that have earned him a role on four title contenders: the 2019-20 Los Angeles Clippers, the 2020-21 Brooklyn Nets, the 2021-23 Phoenix Suns, and now the 2024 Knicks.
The fits aren’t perfect: Shamet has a notable injury history. He missed the final 18 games of the Wizards’ season with a left calf strain and missed 42 games for the Suns the previous season, including 25 straight to a heel injury. McBride is a capable player on both ends of the floor, but at 6-1, his frame has its limitations, and he was viewed more as an off-guard last season, not a lead guard capable of running the offense in spurts like DiVincenzo.
These are among the kinks the Knicks must work through in training camp, which begins in Charleston, S.C. on Tuesday. The starting lineup — projecting as Towns, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart — is compelling on paper, but Hart’s inconsistent three-point shooting and Mitchell Robinson’s injury history are causes for concern.
DiVincenzo quickly became a beloved figure at Madison Square Garden, but it was R.J. Barrett’s trade to the Toronto Raptors that put more of a demand on DiVincenzo to score.
With DiVincenzo now gone, the demand spans to the remaining players on a suddenly slim Knicks second unit. And if this ever-active Knicks front office has proven anything, it’s its willingness to strike a deal and address a need if the answer to the problem isn’t already on the roster.